


Altering Destiny

by bansheequeen (queenbanshee), xtremeroswellian



Category: Smallville
Genre: AU, Averting the apocalypse, Babies, Bestest Cousins, Clark Kent is a jerk, F/M, Hurt Chloe Sullivan, Kandorians - Freeform, Legion Ring, Lois is a Chlollie shipper, Memory Alteration, Memory Magic, Mia Dearden is awesome, Oliver Queen Is So Done, Protective Lois Lane, Protective Oliver Queen, Time Travel, lois knows everything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:14:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 26,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24028726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenbanshee/pseuds/bansheequeen, https://archiveofourown.org/users/xtremeroswellian/pseuds/xtremeroswellian
Summary: Chloe and Oliver get the shock of their lives when someone from the future uses the Legion Ring and sends them an unexpected gift and a note warning them about Zod and the Kandorians.
Relationships: Chloe Sullivan & Lois Lane, Oliver Queen & Mia Dearden, Oliver Queen/Chloe Sullivan
Kudos: 16





	1. Chapter 1

Chloe's pained scream echoed through the headquarters as she pushed, her hands wrapped tightly against the edges of the towel she was laying on, her knees propped up as well as she could, her back arched forward as she pushed as hard as she could breathlessly. 

Mia stilled when she saw Oliver pulling the baby out and wrapping it in one of the towels, her eyes wide.

Lois' eyes were wide, as well, tears welling up in them as she watched Oliver cut the umbilical cord. She squeezed Chloe's shoulders gently as the tiny infant began to cry. "She's here," she whispered.

Chloe let her body lay back against the bed, breathing heavily and closing her eyes at her cousin's words, _she_ , she knew it was going to be a girl. She listened as the baby cried for a second before opening her eyes, her chest tight as she lifted her head, trying to find Oliver.

"Right here," he whispered thickly, gently placing the child in her arms and leaning down to kiss her forehead, his chest tight.

She took the baby without hesitation, hugging her to her chest as tears blurred her vision, swallowing hard, she nodded slightly, looking up at him, "do you have the ring?" She asked, her voice wavering.

Feeling ill, he pulled the ring from his pocket for her to see. "I have it," he whispered.

Nodding slightly, she looked down at the baby and pressed her lips to her forehead, closing her eyes and hugging her close for a long moment before adjusting her and lifting her toward Oliver.

His eyes blurred momentarily as he reached out and took the child back from her, cradling her against his chest and kissing her softly. "I'll be back," he whispered, looking at Mia. "Take care of her."

Mia nodded, sniffing quietly at Oliver in response then pausing and looking between two pieces of paper before holding out one of them for him, "the letter."

"Thank you," he murmured, taking it from her and sliding it into his pocket.

Lois shut her eyes, hugging Chloe gently from where she sat beside her on the bed. A tear slipped down her cheek.

Oliver looked at Chloe, swallowing hard.

"Go," she told him, glancing at him for a second then looking away.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, his voice almost inaudible as he slipped the ring on.

And with a flash of light, he vanished.


	2. Chapter 2

Oliver's jaw was set as he made his way into the Watchtower that evening. He could hardly believe what Tess had told him, what he'd put together on his own. Chloe Sullivan was stealing from him.

It didn't make any sense. It just wasn't like _Chloe_ , period. He forced himself to take a deep breath as he walked into the main room, his gaze falling on her instantly. Dressed in a silky, forest green blouse and a black skirt, she was standing in front of the main computer terminal. She looked so amazing that for a moment he almost forgot the reason he was there to begin with.

"We need to talk."

Chloe blinked, turning around to face him, a smile appearing on her face instantly, "hey, I didn't even hear you coming in."

Oliver barely managed to resist the urge to smile back at her. "Part of the gig." 

"So what's up?" She asked, smirking a little as she stepped closer to him. "Or is this an extracurricular visit?"

"Tess Mercer came to see me today." His voice was distant as he watched her intently.

Her face fell a little at the name, definitely work-related then. "What did she want?"

"She wanted to let me know that there's a drain on company funds that she had no explanation for." His jaw tightened just a little.

Chloe stilled and looked away, staring at the floor for a second. "But you seem to have found one."

"Have I?" He watched her, a neutral expression on his face. The fact that she looked away immediately told him his instincts were exactly right. What he didn't know was _why_.

Her jaw was tight when she turned her head to look at him. "Isn't that why you're here? To accuse me?"

"I had suspicions," he admitted, keeping his gaze on her. "Not too many people could hack right past all of the firewalls and into the financial accounts for LuthorCorp and Queen Industries."

Chloe raised an eyebrow a little and just stared at him, waiting for him to come out and say it.

"Even fewer would know which accounts to put a drain on that wouldn't be easily noticeable." He raised an eyebrow back at her.

"And I am the logical explanation," she said blankly.

"Are you?" he questioned, moving closer to her.

She held his gaze. "I was _borrowing_ it."

Oliver was silent for a long moment, staring at her intently. "You know, in polite society when someone needs to borrow something, they generally _ask_ first."

"I didn't have time to ask," she told him, holding his gaze. "And I couldn't risk you saying no."

"What was so important?" he asked, finally breaking her gaze and looking around Watchtower, trying to determine if there was any new equipment.

"Weapons," she said tightly, her voice lowering. "Kryptonite weapons. I've stashed them around Metropolis."

At that, he turned to look at her, surprise registering on his face.

She stared at him. "I'm not sitting back and watching it happen."

"And you honestly thought I would say _no_?"

"When I started planning this, yes, I thought you would," she told him bluntly.

Oliver stared at her. "How long ago did you start planning this?"

"A couple of months, when Tess got her project approved to build those towers through Mercer Media," she told him, walking over to the main computer and starting to type. "I don't know what the project means, but she wouldn't bring Zod into the meeting with the investors unless he was involved."

He opened his mouth to respond, then shut it again, his jaw tensing. "A couple of months." His voice was flat.

She ignored him, pulling up a map and turning the screen in his direction. "Those are the locations where the weapons are hidden."

He didn't take his eyes off her. "I don't get you."

Chloe turned to look at him and arched a single eyebrow then frowned.

"You probably know me better than anyone on the planet." His voice was even. "Since when did you start thinking that I was waving around a flag saying 'Go Team Zod?'"

"I didn't," she admitted. "But I didn't want to put you in a position in which you had to lie to Clark if it came down to it."

Oliver scoffed at that. "Is that _really_ the reason why?" He was only a couple feet away from her now, his brown eyes dark, intense.

"Partially," she said, holding his gaze. "Part of it was me trying to figure out who to trust when my former best friend seems to have chosen the Kandorians over the people who did nothing but support him his entire life."

A bitter smile touched his lips. "In case you haven't noticed, your former best friend and I aren't exactly sharing a poker night." 

"I gave you the truth," she said blankly. "There are no other explanations."

His jaw tightened a little. "You couldn't have filled me in on this little plan of yours in the last few weeks?"

"I haven't touched or thought about the stashes in weeks," she said honestly, still holding his gaze. "The money is automatically withdrawn to pay the storage facilities."

Oliver stared at her for a long time. "And if you had, would you have filled me in?"

"Does it matter?" She asked, a wry smile appearing on her lips.

"Yes," he said without hesitation. "A hell of a lot."

"I'm telling you _now_ ," she told him, lifting a hand toward the monitor. "These are all the locations."

"You're telling me now because you _had_ to," he responded, barely glancing at the screen.

"No, I didn't. I could have lied to you because I know you have no way of proving I took the money."

Oliver's chest tightened at that. "And I would have believed you."

Her stomach dropped at that and she let out a breath, nodding slightly, "I know."

"But you still don't have that kind of trust in me, do you?" His voice grew quiet.

Chloe gazed at him for a moment. "I told you the truth, didn't I?"

He looked away from her, falling silent, hurt clear on his face.

Her chest tightened painfully at the look on his face and she sighed deeply. "I'm trying, Oliver. I can't do more than that."

"I don't know where this leaves us," he admitted, not looking at her.

"It's your decision," she told him, looking away and closing her eyes tightly.

When he finally looked back at her, he swallowed hard at the sight of her closed eyes. "New rule." His voice was quiet.

She stilled, frowning as she opened her eyes slowly, carefully turning to look at him, she half expected him to just leave, and she wouldn't be able to blame him for it.

He met her eyes, his own intense once again. "100% honesty, no matter what."

Chloe held his gaze for a moment, her chest tight. With Lois gone and the fact that she barely ever talked to Clark anymore and when she did, it was mostly because he wanted her to do something for him, she couldn't afford to lose Oliver too. With a deep breath, she nodded slowly.

Oliver nodded shortly and then turned to head for the door. When guilt tugged at him, he shut his eyes for a few seconds, then turned around once more, moving over to her. He slid a hand into her hair, dipped his head and kissed her urgently.

Her eyes widened but she closed them quickly, wrapping her arms around him and returning the kiss with just as much urgency.

When he broke the kiss a moment later, they were both breathless, and his heart was pounding hard against his chest. He pressed his mouth close to her ear. "I'm on your side," he whispered before pulling away and heading for the door.

She took a deep breath, opening her eyes slowly and rubbing her hands over her face as she heard him walking away.

Oliver started for the elevator, pausing and turning to look when he caught sight of a flash of light from the corner of his eye. "What the hell," he mumbled, heading down the corridor and freezing when he spotted a small infant wrapped in a blanket just before said infant began to wail loudly. 

Chloe saw the light through the door and frowned, turning to walk toward the elevator when she heard his words and then stilling when she heard a baby crying. "Oliver?" She called, pushing the doors open, her eyes widening when she saw him and followed his gaze down to the bundled up baby on the floor.

"There was a light," he told her, still staring down.

"I saw," she whispered, staring down at the baby for a moment longer and then hesitating before walking over to it and picking it up as carefully as she could, not even noticing as a piece of paper slid down from the blanket. "My God," she said quietly. "This baby was just born," she told him, noticing it wasn't even fully clean.

Oliver's eyes widened as he spotted the paper and leaned down to pick it up, glancing at Chloe. " _What_?" He moved closer to her, grimacing a little as he realized she was right.

She shifted the baby awkwardly in her arms, holding her breath as the infant started to calm down. "We need to call Emil."

He nodded, reaching for his phone with one hand while the other unfolded the paper. He hit the speed dial and pressed the phone to his ear.

Chloe took a deep breath, looking down at the child, who was quiet now and waiting for Oliver to talk to Emil, not wanting to move in case she tripped or something.

Oliver stared at the words on the paper even as he spoke to Emil, his eyes wide. "He'll be here soon," he said, shutting the phone off a moment later and re-reading what it said.

She noticed the paper for the first time when she looked at him after he hung up the phone. "What is that?"

His expression was completely blank. "A letter. From _you_."

Blinking, Chloe frowned, stepping closer to him, walking carefully not to disturb the baby as she looked down at the paper. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Oliver's eyes were wide as he held the letter out for her to see, his gaze shifting to the infant in her arms. 

Her stomach dropped as she recognized her own handwriting instantly. Her eyes widening as she started to read the words.

_Chloe, Oliver._

_This is Emily Anne Queen. She was a surprise for us and we (Oliver and I) wanted nothing more than to be able to raise her safely, but our world is at war with the Kandorians and we don't expect to survive much longer, so we needed to find a world in which she would be safe. Yours still has a chance, eliminate the Kandorians before they gain their powers, and raise her as if she were your own._

_Lois is here, we used the legion ring to bring Emily to your time, she will be back with answers shortly._

_Chloe._

Oliver's gaze was still locked on the baby in Chloe's arms. Emily Anne _Queen_. As if sensing his stare, she opened her eyes and yawned widely. Green eyes. Just like her mother's. He swallowed hard and shifted his gaze to Chloe. 

Chloe re-read the letter several times, trying to make sense of what she was reading, but she just couldn't, so she shook her head and looked back down at the baby, blinking when she realized the baby girl had opened her eyes and was staring at Oliver, or looking blankly at Oliver, whichever. "How-- what are we going to do?"

"I have no idea," he whispered.

She took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, shaking her head a little and starting back inside the Watchtower, feeling dazed. She needed to sit down before she dropped the kid.

"Do you think it's really possible?" He followed her slowly, also dazed.

Chloe sat down slowly, sighing in relief as she managed without dropping the baby or upsetting her. "The handwriting looks exactly like mine, I don't know."

He swallowed hard, watching her intently, and then looking at 'Emily' once more. He hesitantly sat down beside Chloe, reaching out and touching the top of the child's blond head.

She lifted her head to look at Oliver as he reached to touch the baby and chewed down on the bottom lip. "I guess we can ask Emil to run DNA tests? I think we're supposed to have the same DNA as other versions of ourselves..."

"Yeah, that's a good idea," he murmured.

With a deep breath, she shifted and leaned back against the couch, crossing her legs on top of it and supporting her arms on her lap, since the baby was kinda heavy. "How desperate do you think they must be if it's true?"

He was silent for a moment. "Desperate enough to travel back in time and leave their newborn baby behind," he whispered.

Chloe frowned at that and looked over at him. "You think they are from the future?"

He pursed his lips and glanced at her. "The note said they used the legion ring to bring her here to our time."

"Right," she said quietly. "I don't know if the ring can skip dimensions or if it just travels through time in this dimension."

Oliver looked down at Emily once more. "This has happened before, right? People doing the time-travel thing."

Chloe nodded. "That's how Clark got the ring in the first place."

He drew in a breath and let it out slowly, hesitantly shifting closer to her. "She has green eyes," he murmured.

"I noticed," she said quietly, looking back down at the baby and shifting her awkwardly. "Do you wanna hold her?"

His eyes widened a little at that. "Uh, yeah. Okay."

Chloe bit down on her bottom lip and adjusted the baby in her arms, eyes widening when she made a quiet noise, she looked over at Oliver and paused. "Hm, not sure how to do this."

He smiled a little, nodding and shifting his arms, carefully taking the child from her and cradling her to his chest.

She held her breath until the baby was safe in his arms, then she let her breath out slowly and relaxed a little. "She said Lois was there and that she was coming back."

He nodded slightly, not tearing his eyes away from the infant. "That'd be good," he murmured.

Chloe cocked her head, not missing the way he was staring at the baby. "Emily was my grandmother's name."

"It's a pretty name," Oliver told her, smiling down at Emily faintly. He lifted one hand to gently touch her cheek with his finger.

She cocked her head a little. "Where should we keep her?"

Oliver blinked at the question, looking at her uncertainly. "I don't know."

Chloe bit down on her bottom lip and looked around, "I have that area upstairs..."

He glanced toward the stairs. "There's the clock tower, too," he murmured.

Nodding slightly, Chloe took a deep breath and looked down at the baby once more. "I guess both?"

Oliver was silent for a moment, glancing down at Emily, too. "Maybe," he murmured.

"I mean, I'm here pretty much all the time," she told him, staring down at the baby.

"And I work a lot." He bit his lower lip.

She nodded and took a deep breath, shaking her head. "This is way too much..."

Oliver glanced at her sideways. "We'll figure it out," he told her quietly.

"I know but they know us, I mean they _are_ us, they could have sent us a note ahead of time, given us the heads up so we could prepare or something."

"Maybe there wasn't time," he whispered. "We don't know how bad things might be."

She nodded a little, taking a deep breath. "Emil needs to get here already, make sure everything is okay with her."

As if on cue, Emil walked inside. "What's going on?" he asked with concern. And then he spotted them on the sofa, and froze.

Chloe blinked and looked up from Emily to the doctor, standing up instantly, "she's a newborn, we just found her, you need to make sure she's okay," she told him quickly.

"You _found_ her?" he echoed, moving forward quickly at that, worried.

"She found us," Oliver murmured.

"We'll explain," Chloe promised, "just... make sure she's okay and tell us what to do to keep her that way."

"Where are her parents?" he asked warily, sitting down beside Oliver and opening his medical kit.

"We are her parents," Chloe told him, her eyes widening even as she spoke, "or... future versions of ourselves."

At that, Emil froze once more, turning to look at her. "Excuse me?"

"It's a long story," Oliver interrupted. "Can you please just check her over and make sure that she's all right?"

Chloe nodded urgently, crossing her arms over her chest, "we think she was just born maybe an hour ago."

"God," he muttered, reaching out to take the infant from Oliver.

"Be _careful_ ," Oliver said tensely.

She bit down on her bottom lip, holding her breath as Emil shifted the baby in his arms and unwrapped the blanket from around her.

Oliver kept his eyes on the infant as Emil checked her over.

Several moments later, Emil let out a breath. "She appears to be healthy. I'm going to need to take her to the hospital to do some tests, and keep an eye on her for a couple of days."

Chloe's eyes widened and she shook her head, dropping her arms and taking a step forward, "you can't take her away from us, you're not taking her anywhere."

Emil looked up at her, startled. "Chloe, she's a newborn. She needs round-the-clock medical care for the first couple of days to make certain nothing goes wrong. That there are any complications. It's standard."

She shook her head a little, glancing at Oliver then back at Emil, "I'll stay there with her, then."

Oliver met her eyes for a moment, then nodded slightly. "One of us needs to be with her at all times." His voice was quiet.

Chloe relaxed slightly at that and nodded, holding Oliver's gaze then looking back at Emil, "I'll grab some clothes and we can go."

Emil sighed inaudibly, but nodded anyway.

"Let me have her," Oliver said quietly, reaching out and carefully taking the infant back into his arms.

Emil watched as Chloe walked away then nodded at Oliver, still frowning as he packed his things up again, "I'll go ahead and make sure a room is prepared for you, wrap her in something thicker than that, it's too cold outside for a newborn to be in that."

Swallowing hard, he nodded a little and reached out, picking up his leather jacket from the couch. He carefully wrapped it around her, pressing a kiss to her forehead without thinking about it.

With a deep breath, Emil watched for a moment then shook his head and walked out of the room.

Chloe came back a moment later carrying a small backpack and holding her breath when she saw Oliver with the baby, "where is Emil?"

"He headed out already. To make sure he could get a room for us." He rose to his feet slowly. "He told me to wrap her in something warmer," he told her, glancing down at the brown coat wound around the blanket.

She nodded and bit down on her bottom lip, watching the two of them for a moment then picking up the blanket she usually slept with and folding it a few times before draping it over Oliver's shoulder and the baby carefully, "okay, hopefully that will be enough."

Oliver met her eyes for a moment, then nodded slightly. "Are you driving?" he asked uncertainly.

Chloe nodded, walking over to her desk and picking up her purse too, "yeah, that way we don't have to move her, c'mon."

Drawing in a breath, he followed her out of the room and toward the elevators.

She didn't say anything until they were in the elevator, her keys clenched in her hand as she shifted anxiously, "at least this will give us time to set everything up for her."

Oliver glanced at her sideways. "Yeah," he whispered.

"And figure out how the hell we're going to do this," she told him, holding his gaze.

He drew in a breath and let it out slowly, nodding. "Together."

Chloe nodded slightly and took a deep breath, looking down at the baby, or what little she could see of her, and quietly realizing that if Oliver wasn't there to go through this with her, she would be a complete mess, so she took a step closer and placed a hand on his back, looking up at him and nodding again.

Oliver relaxed a little at her light touch and managed a faint, worried smile. At least they were in this together.


	3. Chapter 3

Chloe took a deep breath as she finished another book on parenting, adding it to the pile with the others. She had gone out once Emily was settled in and had gone to the nearest bookstore and picked up a bunch of books so they could _at least_ have some idea about what they were going to need and about what to expect. Most people had seven to eight months to prepare for this, so she had spend the night trying to catch up between standing by the crib and staring at the baby for long periods of time. Which she was doing again now that she was done with the book

There was no denying she looked like them, her eyes were green, but they were shaped like Oliver's, her nose was definitely a lot like her own but her mouth was also Oliver's at least when she wasn't smiling, she didn't know how that would look like yet and according to the books, she had some time before she found out.

Emil told them that everything seemed to be in order with her, she was perfectly healthy if maybe a little underweight, but nothing to worry about. Chloe took a deep breath and reached down, brushing her fingers over her thin blond hair and taking a deep breath, she still had no idea what to do with her or where to start once they left the hospital, but the fact that she was healthy was a good place to start, especially since if the letter and the state of the blanket she came in was anything to go by, she wasn't exactly born under ordinary circumstances.

Oliver watched her from the door of the nursery for a long time. She looked tired, but also more alert, more aware than she'd seemed for a long time. He felt the same way. He held his breath for a long moment, watching as she trailed her fingers gently through the infant's fine blond hair. "Hey," he said very softly, pushing himself away from the door frame. "I'm back."

Chloe jumped a little when he spoke and pulled her hand back, pursing her lips together as she turned to look at him, "hey."

"How is she?" he asked softly, holding out a bag toward her.

"Thanks," she told him, taking the bag then looking back down at the baby, "she's... calm, I guess? She hasn't cried or anything."

"She's always pretty calm," he murmured, looking down at Emily.

"Well, in the like twelve hours we've known her," she said, smiling a little.

A smile tugged at his lips, as well. "Well, yeah." He gazed at her for a moment, then glanced at Chloe. "How are you doing?"

Chloe took a deep breath and shrugged a little, walking away from the baby and placing her food on the small table by the armchair she'd been sitting on, "pretty overwhelmed still, I don't know if the books are helping or making it worse," she admitted then raised her eyebrows at him, "you?"

Oliver smiled a bit at that. "I'm having things delivered to Watchtower's ground floor, and to the clock tower." He paused. "I'll get it all set up before she comes home."

"That is far from being an answer to my question," she pointed out, opening her bagel and smearing cream cheese on it.

"You noticed that, huh?" He watched her for a moment. "I'm all right. I've been doing some thinking."

She paused mid-bite and pulled the bagel away, frowning a little, "okay?"

"It's a long drive from Watchtower to the Talon every day." He gazed at her. "Why don't you move into the clock tower?"

Chloe stilled, blinking a couple of time as she stared at him, he didn't need to know she didn't really go back to the Talon anymore, there was no point going to Smallville unless she needed to do laundry or pick up more clothes, "you want me to move in with you?"

"I think it'll be the easiest thing," he told her. "We'll both be there if she needs anything, neither of us will have to be away from her at night, and it's only a couple blocks from Watchtower."

She took a deep breath and considered his answer for a moment then looked over at the baby again, she couldn't deny the fact that she would massively freak out if for some reason Emily started to cry and she couldn't make her stop, or if she got sick or something... Chloe sighed deeply and nodded, "yeah, you're right."

Oliver paused at that, surprised she'd agreed so quickly. "All right." He offered her a small smile. "It'll be okay, Chloe."

Chloe swallowed and nodded a little, "we'll give it a try and if it doesn't work out, we'll just... figure something else out."

He nodded slightly, falling silent as his chest tightened at her quick assumption that it might not work.

She sighed softly and sat back down, taking a bite of her bagel and chewing it quietly, "did Emil tell you when we can take her home?"

"A couple of days at the latest," he told her quietly, still gazing down at Emily.

"Hopefully we will be done with those books by then," she told him, looking over at the pile.

Oliver nodded a little. "We're going to need help," he said quietly.

Chloe frowned a little and shook her head, "the less people who know about her, the safer she is, Oliver. If the Kandorians somehow hear about her and gain their powers, she will be an easy target."

"I meant from Mia," he said softly, glancing over at her.

"Oh," she relaxed a little and took a deep breath, nodding, "did you tell her yet?"

"No, not yet," he admitted.

She raised her eyebrows a little, "how do you think she will react?"

A faint smirk touched his lips. "Probably about the way that we did."

Chloe took a deep breath and smiled a little, nodding, "I can't believe we're suddenly responsible for her..."

"Emil's running DNA tests," he said softly, even though there was very little doubt in his mind that Emily was theirs.

"Do you think she'll be able to tell the difference?" Chloe asked quietly, no doubt in her mind that the letter was speaking the truth.

"No," he whispered, shaking his head. "Not unless we tell her."

She nodded a little, looking down at her bagel, "I guess there is no way to tell her the truth."

Oliver watched her for a moment. "In a way, she's actually ours," he murmured. "I mean, if it was us from the future."

Chloe paused at that, frowning as she processed the thought, "but now we're not having her anymore, I mean, things have already changed."

He swallowed hard at that, looking away. "I know."

She rubbed her hand over her face and took a deep breath, "we have a lot more we need to change."

"Zod," he said quietly.

"Yeah," she whispered, looking down again, her head spinning a little. She was usually good with stressful situations, but this was just... a _lot_.

"We will." His voice was soft, but filled with assurance.

Chloe raised her eyes and held his gaze, nodding slowly, "I know."

He held her gaze back. "I should call Mia."

"Okay," she told him quietly, staring up at him.

"Do you need anything?" he asked her softly.

Chloe shook her head a little, still staring up at him, "no, I'm okay."

Oliver hesitated a moment, then moved over to her chair, leaning down and pressing a kiss to her forehead tenderly. "I'll be back."

She closed her eyes then lifted a hand to his arm, looking up at him, "for the record?" She said quietly.

He paused, waiting for her to continue. "Yeah?"

"I'm glad you're in this with me," she told him sincerely.

Oliver held his breath for a moment, meeting her eyes once more, and then nodding slightly. A small, genuine smile touched his mouth. "Me too," he whispered, this time kissing her mouth lightly.

Chloe kissed him back softly, squeezing his arm softly. Oliver had been trying to break through her walls for a while now and he hadn't given up even though she kept on pushing him away, she knew he obviously cared about her and although this situation was beyond messed up, at least she knew he wouldn't just get frustrated and leave, he was persistent and almost as stubborn as she was.

He brushed his nose against hers lightly, then rose to full height once more, winking at her before heading for the hallway to call Mia.

She smiled a little at him and took a deep breath, looking at Emily once more as she went back to her bagel.

* * *

Oliver was sitting in one of the reclining chairs, Emily cradled in his arms, against his chest, when he heard footsteps approaching. He glanced over toward the door, holding his breath when he heard the light knock. He hadn't told her much, just that he had some news and he needed her help if she was willing. "Come in," he said quietly, not wanting to disturb the sleeping infant.

Mia walked into the room, she had made it to MetGen in no time at all, her eyes wide even as she pushed her door open, and then she stilled completely at the sight, she stepped in and let the door fall closed, "shit, Ollie, who did you knock up?" She whispered instantly, she wasn't even aware she had spoken the words out loud until she heard them. 

A faint, amused smile touched his mouth at her question. "You should probably sit down for this one."

She stared at the baby for a second then sat down on the other armchair.

He drew in a breath and let it out slowly. "She's...mine and Chloe's, apparently."

" _What_?" She raised her eyebrows and smirked, "somehow, I think I would have noticed if Chloe was pregnant, Ollie."

"From the future," he added. "Mine and Chloe's daughter from the future." He glanced down at Emily, who stirred a little in his arms, then relaxed once more.

"Yeah, right," she told him, smirking some more, "and I'm an alien, seriously, Ollie, who did you knock up?"

He raised his eyebrows at her, pursing his lips. "I'm completely serious," he told her. "I was leaving Watchtower last night when there was a bright light and when I went to see what it was..." He nodded toward the infant. "She was wrapped up in a ragged blanket. There was a letter with her." He watched Mia carefully. "She wasn't quite an hour old."

The smirk slipped from her lips and she stared at him for a full moment, noticing how serious he was, "you're not kidding," she said finally, "so future you and Chloe sent her back in time?" She asked, confused. 

Oliver nodded slightly, holding her gaze. "According to the letter, there's a war coming," he whispered. "A bad one. They uh--weren't expecting to survive much longer, so..." He swallowed hard and looked down at Emily.

" _Oh_..." her eyes widened and she looked down at the baby, "what kind of war?"

He was glad she was still sitting considering what he was about to tell her. "With a race of super-powered aliens called Kandorians," he said quietly.

Mia didn't even try to stop her mouth from hanging open this time, she just stared at him. 

"I know it all sounds really crazy," he told her, meeting her eyes. "But they're here now. They don't have their abilities here. Yet."

She just stared at him for a moment longer, processing the information then frowning, "then what do we do to make sure they’re gone before they get turned into super-powered aliens?"

Oliver grimaced a little at that, not answering as he dropped his gaze to look at Emily.

" _What_? Just tell me already." She told him. 

"Their leader has to die."

"Right," Mia said, raising her eyebrows, "how do we kill him?" 

He shook his head at that, looking over at her. " _We_ don't. That's not why I called you here."

"Whatever, what are we doing about?" She asked again.

Oliver gazed at her intently. "I've ordered furniture and things for both Watchtower and the clock tower. I was wondering if you'd help me get stuff set up while Chloe stays here with Emily."

"Oh," Mia raised her eyebrows and nodded, "yeah, but you better not try to keep me out of the way on the important stuff, I wanna help."

He smiled a bit at that. "You want to hold her?" he asked quietly.

She paused at that and chewed down on her bottom lip then nodded a little, "you called her Emily?"

"They did...uh, future us," he said softly, rising to his feet and moving over to where she sat in the recliner.

Mia adjusted on the chair and nodded, "so she came with a name and everything?"

He grinned a little. "Yeah. Emily Anne Queen." He carefully shifted the infant into her arms.

She took the baby, shifting her easily and raising her eyebrows a little, "woah, she looks a lot like you."

His eyes brightened a little at that. "You think so?"

Mia nodded, looking between the baby and Ollie for a moment then nodding, "totally, look at her mouth."

He smiled. "She has Chloe's eyes," he told her with a soft smile.

"Lucky, green is totally cooler than brown," she told him, shifting the baby a little more toward her to study her face. 

Oliver chuckled at that, moving to sit back in his own seat and pulling his phone out of his pocket. He snapped a picture of Mia and Emily and saved it to his phone. "Chloe's moving into the clocktower."

"What was that for?" She then paused, "she _is_?"

"It was a good picture," he said with a shrug, tucking the phone away once more and then nodding. "We figured it'd be easier on everyone than trying to commute between Metropolis and Smallville every day with an infant."

"Oh, yeah, I forgot she didn't really live in Metropolis," Mia said with a shrug, "where is she anyway?"

"She went to grab her laptop so she can do some research while Emily sleeps," he told her, watching her carefully.

"Does that mean you guys are an actual couple now?" She asked curiously, smirking a little.

Oliver paused at that. "I don't know," he admitted quietly. "We haven't really talked about it."

"Well, you're moving in together and you have a kid together, I'm gonna go with yes," she teased, looking down at the baby, "and Em totally agrees with me."

He bit his lip, looking down at the infant, too. "I'm not really convinced Chloe's going to see it that way, Mia."

"I'm not gonna say anything," she told him with a shrug, "but it's true."

He drew in a breath, watching as Emily opened her eyes and looked up at Mia.

Mia raised an eyebrow at the look on Oliver's face then looked down, grinning a little, "hey kid."

Oliver grinned too, his eyes bright. "She likes you."

"How do you know?" She asked, smirking.

"Well...she's not crying," he pointed out.

"Right," Mia nodded, looking down at the baby again, "I guess that's the only thing she can do right now."

He nodded. "Plus she's my kid, so of course she likes her aunt Mia."

Mia wrinkled her nose at that, " _Aunt_? That makes me sound old." 

Oliver chuckled. "Big sister makes _me_ sound old."

"Better you than me," she told him, grinning.

He shook his head in amusement. "Fine. Of course she likes her _older_ sister Mia." He smirked.

Mia nodded, grinning and looking down at Emily, "awesome, I'll teach her everything she needs to know before she can even walk."

He smiled, moving over and dropping a kiss to the top of Mia's head. "I have no doubt."

"So why is she in the hospital?" Mia asked after a moment. 

"Just standard procedure. Emil wanted to keep an eye on her around the clock for the first couple of days just in case. But she's completely healthy. A little underweight."

"Gotta eat more, then," she said, nodding a little and looking down at her then smirking and cocking her head to look at Oliver, "do you even know how to change diapers?"

Oliver smirked back at her. "Do _you_?"

"Yeah, I do," she told him, smirking, "and if you're nice, maybe I can teach you."

"Well, that's good. We'll need a reliable babysitter." His eyes twinkled with amusement. "And when am I not nice?"

"You better be aware that you're paying me to babysit," she told him then just grinned as the answer to his second question.

"I wouldn't dream of asking otherwise," he teased.

"I like having you around already, kid." Mia told Emily, looking down at her.

Oliver smiled softly at that. 

So did he.


	4. Chapter 4

Emil had kept Emily in the hospital for two whole days, by the time he released them, Chloe was absolutely restless and ready to go home, but for once, she didn't complain about the extended hospital stay because she knew it was for the baby's well being. The baby, her _daughter_ , whom Chloe was currently carefully taking to the new nursery in the Clocktower, was sleeping peacefully in her arms. She had fallen asleep the second the car started moving and Chloe made sure to make a mental note about that. Just in case.

She was still trying to process the fact that she and Oliver were now responsible for this little person, but she already felt incredibly attached to her, not to mention ridiculously protective. She had been around Emily for just over forty-eight hours and she already felt so familiar, so... recognizable. She supposed that came with the fact that she was, in fact, her daughter, in every sense of the word. Even before Emil came back with the DNA test results, she already felt this way. Like she was a part of her.

Chloe pressed a tender kiss to the top of Emily's head and smiled slightly when she stirred, but didn't wake up. She reluctantly lowered the baby to the bassinet and sighed softly when she let go of her. Emil had told them she would be more comfortable if they let her sleep on her own when he realized she and Oliver kept taking turns holding the baby until their arms fell asleep and Chloe had read in some of the books that it wasn't good for the baby to hold her all the time, but it was hard to let go of her, especially knowing she was only two days old and had already gone through so much.

She adjusted the blanket carefully around her before pulling her hand back, she looked comfortable and was still asleep, so that was a good start. Oliver had gone back downstairs to grab the rest of the stuff they had brought to the hospital with them, so she figured she'd just stay there with Em until he was back, she had been so focused on the baby, she had barely even noticed the nursery until now. It was completely equipped like she knew it would be, but it was fully decorated too. The wallpaper was a pastel shade of a darker green, and it was covered by baby safari animals, Chloe guessed the theme had been picked mostly based on the color, but she liked it. It had a lot of browns in it too and it was... cozy. And considering how much time they were probably going to spend there, cozy was a good quality for it to have.

Oliver carried the rest of the things into the penthouse, carefully setting Chloe's bag down by the sofa and letting out a breath. He was exhausted and he wanted to go climb into his bed and crash. But there was too much to be done. He listened to the silence for a moment, smiling faintly. Apparently Emily was still asleep. He slowly headed down the hallway toward the nursery. He was pretty sure he still had green paint under his nails from it. He peeked in the door and saw Chloe standing by the bassinet.

She heard his footsteps then turned around, smiling a little as she reluctantly took a step away from the bassinet, "it looks really nice." She told him in a whisper not to bother the baby.

He smiled at that. "Thanks." His smile slipped a little. "I should have asked if you had a theme in mind."

"I'm glad you didn't," she told him, raising her eyebrows, "I would have just stared blankly at you."

Oliver relaxed a little and grinned. "Mia suggested this one."

Chloe nodded a little and smiled, "it looks nice," she told him quietly, "she seems pretty excited about this."

"She is," he said softly, watching her.

She chewed down on her bottom lip and nodded a little, "if you wanna go get some rest, I'll stay with her."

He hesitantly reached out and touched her cheek, gazing at her. "Are you okay?" His voice was very quiet.

Chloe held her breath and nodded a little, "yeah, I think so.." she told him quietly, she was still kind of dazed, but she figured that would go away eventually, once they had some kind of routine, "are you?"

He nodded, as well, leaning in and kissing her forehead gently. "It's a lot, but..." He looked over toward the bassinet.

"But it's not necessarily a bad thing?" She asked quietly, looking up at him, she couldn't believe she was saying that about having a baby, the thought of being a mother always terrified her, she always thought she wouldn't make a very good one since she never really had her own mom around.

He smiled faintly. "Yeah, exactly." He met her eyes once more.

She took a deep breath and nodded, smiling slightly, "yeah, I feel the same way," she admitted quietly.

Nodding, he shifted closer to her, dipping his head and kissing her softly on the mouth.

Chloe kissed him back and smiled softly, placing a hand on his arm and squeezing it softly, having him there with her was definitely incredibly comforting.

"You hungry? We stocked up on food," he told her after the kiss ended. "I could fix something."

"It's okay," she told him, "I can find something," she told him quietly, still watching him, "go get some sleep."

"Are you sure? I really don't mind."

"I'm sure," she promised quietly, smiling a little, "I'll stay with her and finish up that last book."

Oliver smiled faintly and nodded. "All right." He kissed her cheek. "If you need me, my room's one door down to the right."

"Okay," she told him, watching him closely and nodding.

He met her eyes for a moment, glanced at Emily once more, then headed for the door.

Chloe took a deep breath and looked at the baby again, stopping herself from picking her up and walking over to the rocking chair in the corner instead and sitting down, she would pick up her book in a while, right now, she just wanted to take a moment to try and process all of this.

* * *

Oliver awoke to the sound of a shrill cry and he quickly rolled out of bed, rubbing a hand over his face as he made his way into the nursery, not hesitating to lift Emily into his arms. "Hey, there," he whispered. "What's wrong?" he murmured.

Chloe was right behind him, her eyes wide, her hair everywhere as she rushed into the room, "what's wrong?" She asked a second later, she had reluctantly agreed to using the baby monitor, but not until she installed one of the super-microphones they used for patrolling in it, that microphone could pretty much pick up the sound of her blinking.

He turned, looking at her in the semi-dark. "I'm not sure," he told her.

She ran a hand through her hair and stepped closer, "did you check her diaper?"

"No, I just got here," he said softly, carefully carrying her over to the changing table. "What time is it?" He hadn't even thought to look at the clock on his way out of the room.

"A little past four," she told him, rubbing a hand over her face and taking a deep breath.

He glanced back at her. "Maybe she's hungry?" He focused on Emily once more, carefully untaping her diaper.

"Maybe," Chloe agreed, "I'll go get a bottle..."

"All right. And I'll finish diaper duty." He smiled faintly.

"Okay," She said, yawning before walking out of the room, slower now that she knew Oliver was with Emily.

Oliver grimaced a little as he pulled the dirty diaper off Emily and pitched it into the garbage, cleaning her up and placing a clean diaper on her.

Chloe came back a moment later carrying a bottle and made a face when she saw Oliver wrapping a diaper around her, "I guess you found the problem?"

"At least part of it." He wrinkled his nose a little, then picked up the baby carefully once more.

She cocked her head a little and nodded, "I can try to feed her if you wanna go back to bed."

"I'm awake now." He shrugged a little, holding Emily out to her. "I'll keep you company." He paused. "If that's okay."

"Yeah," she told him, smiling softly and taking Emily gently in her arms, smiling down at her, "she's so much more alert."

Oliver nodded a little. "Yeah, even though it's only been a couple of days, I can tell the difference."

"Yeah," Chloe kissed her forehead gently then walked over to the rocking chair and sat down slowly, "I like this arrangement," she told him quietly, smirking a little, "you change her, I feed her."

He smirked at that, sitting down in the other rocking chair and watching her. "Figures."

She grinned a little, shifting the baby and giving her the bottle. She kept her eyes on Emily for a moment, watching as she started to eat before looking at Oliver again, "so how are you doing?"

He raised his eyebrows at her. "I'm all right," he told her.

"Yeah?" She asked again, glancing at the baby then looking back at him.

"Yeah. I mean, obviously this...isn't what either of us expected but...sometimes those are the things that turn out the best." His voice dropped a little.

Chloe smiled a little and nodded, taking a deep breath, "I guess so... at least the older us had faith in us that we could do this and as weird as that sentence is, it's kind of comforting, you know?"

Oliver smiled faintly. "Yeah, I know what you mean." He gazed at her.

She took a deep breath and looked down at the baby again, she'd been thinking about this for a while, well, since they found Emily, and the darkness of the room and the fact that she wasn't a hundred percent awake yet, "do you think they were... are together?"

He was silent for a moment. "I think there's a good possibility," he whispered.

Chloe swallowed quietly and looked back down, "you don't think that they were just... having sex and she happened?" She asked quietly, chewing on her bottom lip.

His chest tightened involuntarily. "Is that what you think happened?"

"I don't know," she whispered quietly, "it's what we were doing, right?"

Oliver swallowed hard at that, falling silent for a long moment. "I suppose so."

"I don't know," she said quietly, "from the letter, it sounded like... like they were a team."

"Aren't we?" he asked softly.

"I guess we are learning how to be," she whispered.

"I think we should continue that pattern," he murmured.

"I think so too," she told him quietly, looking over at him again, "I think we make a good team."

"I think we could make a great team." He gazed back at her intently.

Chloe held his gaze and nodded slowly, searching his eyes, "I think we already are," she told him quietly, "at least when it comes to taking care of her."

He smiled faintly. "Yeah, I think so too."

She nodded a little watching him for a moment longer then adjusting the baby as she continued to eat, "where do we go from here?"

"That's...a good question." He gazed at her.

She pulled the bottle away when Emily started to push it away from her lips then placed it on the small table between the chairs, "I guess we will figure it out eventually."

"We're good at figuring things out," he said, nodding a little and watching her.

"Apparently," she told him quietly, shifting the baby and leaning her against her chest then patting her back gently.

Oliver was quiet for a moment. "For the record...you're welcome to sleep in whichever room you're most comfortable in."

Chloe paused at that and raised her eyebrows a little, turning to look at him, they hadn't really done anything more than kissing since they found Emily, so she was more than a little surprised by the invite, "oh."

"It's up to you," he whispered. "There's...no pressure, Chloe."

"It's not pressure," she told him, "just... hadn't thought about that."

He nodded a little, watching her and smiling faintly when Emily burped.

Chloe smiled a little and pressed a kiss to Emily's temple, "it goes both ways."

Oliver paused at that. "Oh."

She paused and looked at him, rubbing the baby's back, "we've been... busy so, I wasn't sure where we stood."

He held his breath for a moment, then nodded, holding her gaze.

Chloe hugged Emily to her a little and looked at him, taking a deep breath.

"You know me better than anyone," he said very quietly. "You're probably the closest thing to a real friend I've ever had."

She stilled at that, blinking a couple of times and staring at him, "Ollie..."

"I'm just saying," he said softly, shrugging a little.

"I know," she told him quietly, "and that means a lot to me, especially because..." she paused, "I know you've been trying so hard to show me you care and I keep pushing you away."

"I get why you do," he said just as quietly, shaking his head a little.

"You do?" She asked quietly, frowning a little.

He nodded silently, watching her in the darkness.

"What do you mean?" She asked quietly, sitting up as she laid Emily back down against her arm.

Oliver drew in a breath and let it out slowly. "I haven't exactly proven myself very well the last few months." He shifted a little. "And you've been through a lot."

"No, Ollie," she took a deep breath and shook her head, "it has nothing to do with you."

"You don't want to get hurt," he said softly.

At that she paused and nodded a little, hugging the baby close, "I don't want to screw things up with you too," she whispered, her eyes tearing up and she was glad the room was dark.

He held his breath, startled. "Chloe." He shook his head, slowly rising to his feet and moving over to her.

"I know it's stupid," she told him quietly, looking up at him then shrugged a little, "but I'm just tired of losing people."

"It's not stupid," he whispered. "It's not stupid at all, Chloe."

She took a deep breath and held his gaze but remained silent, watching him closely. She didn't even know why she was telling him all this, normally she would hold back, but she was glad she was finally telling him the truth.

He leaned down and pressed a tender kiss to her forehead. "Like I said. There's no pressure. But I'm here, Chloe."

Chloe turned her head up and kissed him softly, she wanted to pull him closer, but she was still holding the baby, so that would have to do.

He kissed her back without hesitation, leaning his head against hers for a moment and then leaning down to kiss the top of Emily's head, as well.

She kept her eyes closed for a moment longer then took a deep breath, "it means the world to me that you didn't give up on me."

"I won't," he whispered. "Not ever."

Smiling slightly, she kissed his cheek and sniffed quietly, nodding, "I know." She couldn't explain how she knew, but she did.

He gently tucked some hair behind her ear, his fingers brushing against her cheek. "Goodnight, Chloe," he whispered.

"Oh," she said quietly, taking a deep breath then nodded, "goodnight."

Oliver kissed her mouth softly once more, then headed toward the door.

Chloe sighed deeply and leaned back against the chair, looking down at the baby who still had her eyes open and smiling a little before starting to rock the chair gently as she touched Emily's hand, "I think we'll be okay," she whispered to her as she touched her little fingers, "what do you think?" She asked quietly, the grinned softly as Emily's fingers curled around her index one. She'd take that as a yes.

Oliver laid down in his bed once more, letting out a breath and closing his eyes tightly. He didn't hear the light footsteps approaching a few moments later, but he felt it when the mattress dipped just a little beneath her weight. Instantly he turned over so he was facing her, a soft smile on his face.

She held her breath when he turned, holding her breath a little as she laid down on the bed, "did I wake you?" She whispered.

"I wasn't asleep," he told her softly. He shifted slightly and tugged the blankets up and over her.

Chloe chewed down on her bottom lip and nodded a little, turning on her side to face him, "it took her awhile to get her to fall back asleep too."

"Think she has our sleeping habits?" He smiled a bit.

"God, I hope not," she told him, making a face, "we'll never get anything done..."

He chuckled, then shifted closer to her, wrapping his arm around her waist. "Is this okay?" he asked softly.

Chloe took a deep breath and shifted a little closer, keeping her eyes on his face then nodding a little, "yeah, is it okay with you?"

He nodded, as well. "We have a baby," he murmured.

She held her breath at the words and nodded, lifting a hand to his side, "and it's as terrifying as I thought it would be."

Oliver was silent for a moment. "We've faced down criminals, killers, meteor-infected..." He exhaled. "Somehow this is a whole new level of terrifying."

"I know..." she whispered, closing her eyes before opening them a moment later, "do you feel like a parent?"

He considered that. "I feel responsible for her," he murmured. "I want to keep her safe. I _need_ to keep her safe."

"Like nothing is more important than that," Chloe said, nodding slightly, "that's how I feel too."

Oliver drew in a breath and let it out slowly. "We won't be able to keep this quiet forever," he whispered.

"I know," she whispered, "what are we going to tell the others?"

He was silent for a moment. "I don't there's any reason to keep the truth from the team. I mean, if anyone will understand it's them."

"And we'll need their help," she told him.

Oliver nodded a little. "And what about Clark?" His voice tensed a little.

Chloe shook her head and bit down on her bottom lip, "I don't want him to know. He will get in the way of us keeping her safe."

"I agree," he said quietly. "He has too much trust in Zod."

"We need to get rid of Zod before he stops us," she added, her voice so quiet, she barely made a sound at all.

"I know," he whispered, shifting closer and kissing her forehead.

She closed her eyes and shifted closer to him, "I figured out that they were together."

"How?" he murmured, his own eyes drifting shut.

"They named her Queen," she whispered, wrapping her arm around his back, "not Sullivan-Queen."

"Does it scare you?" he whispered.

"Yeah," she admitted quietly, "but it would scare me more if they weren't together."

He was silent for a moment and then he rested his head against hers. "I won't hurt you, Chloe."

Her chest clenched at the sincerity in his words, so she kept her eyes closed then nodded a little, brushing her nose against his, "I hope I don't hurt you either."

"One day at a time, right?" He kissed the corner of her mouth.

"Yeah," she whispered, turning her head and pressing her lips against his as she did her best to ignore the butterflies in her stomach.

Oliver kissed her back softly. "Rest," he whispered. "She'll probably be awake again within a couple hours."

"Yeah," she said quietly, hugging him a little before relaxing her body as much as she could, "you too."

"Sweet dreams," he whispered, drifting off.

She smiled softly at his words and snuggled against his side before sighing deeply. Spending the night in his bed didn't feel like a big deal anymore. And they hadn't even had sex.


	5. Chapter 5

Chloe smiled a little as Emily chewed, well, gummed on her toy and nodded, taking a deep breath before pulling away from the crib. She couldn't believe she was two months old already, she was so much bigger and so much more aware of everything than when they first found her, it was pretty mind-blowing. This was her first time outside of the apartment, they had been afraid the media would somehow see Oliver with her and make a scandal out of it, which was the last thing they wanted, since they didn't want the Kandorians to know about her.

But today was Sunday and Ollie had meetings to take care of, the streets of Metropolis were pretty deserted, so Chloe brought her over with her to do some work and so far, things had been pretty quiet. She was a lot more comfortable with taking care of the baby than she thought she would be, even when she was on her own.

Hesitantly, she walked over to the coffee maker and set it up before starting it, then powered up the tower, she had been there a few times in the past couple of months, but usually just to make sure the equipment was still running, because she'd been running the missions and nightly patrol from the Clocktower. If bringing Emily over was safe enough, however, she was planning on starting to come back at least every other night, there was only so much she could do from her laptop and the older equipment the Clocktower had, besides, this was work.

She was about to go back to check on her coffee when she felt a strong wind hit her and she stilled. She knew Bart was in Florida with AC, helping him with dolphins or something, so she could only guess who her unexpected visitor was, someone she hadn't seen in nearly three months and the last person, short of Zod, that she wanted to see right now.

"We have a problem," Clark announced without so much as a _hello, I've missed you, I'm glad you're back_ or even a _smile._

Chloe blew out a breath and slowly turned to face him, doing her best not to look in the baby's direction to check on her, "what's wrong?"

His jaw tightened a little and he looked at her computer screens. "Tess Mercer. She's been stockpiling Kryptonite weapons all over the state. Maybe even all over the _country_."

She blinked at that, especially since the accusation wasn't entirely accurate, "how do you know?"

"Zod told me," he responded without looking at her. "He found one of them."

"I'll look into it," she told him, wanting to get rid of him as quickly as possible.

He moved closer to the largest computer screen, waiting. "All right. Let's do this."

"Excuse me?" Chloe shook her head, quickly stepping between him and the computers, "I'm sure you have more important things to do, Clark, I'll call out for you when I'm done."

"My life is kind of important to me, Chloe," he said sharply. "So can we please get on this now?"

Chloe arched an eyebrow at that, "your life is important to me too, Clark, which is why I will look into this as soon as possible, but I don't think Tess made the weapons to harm _you_ , maybe she's having second thoughts about Zod." She told him, "I'll let you know as soon as I have something."

He narrowed his eyes. "Do you think your _as soon as possible_ might be sometime this week?" he asked, scowling at her. "Because you haven't exactly been working very much lately."

She blinked, raising her eyebrows at that, "since when do I have to report my work schedule to you, Clark? And just because I'm not here, it doesn't mean I'm not working."

His scowl only deepened. "How exactly are you supposed to be helping me if I can't even _find_ you?"

She stilled, taking a deep breath, "I have a life of my own, Clark," she said calmly, "I can't just sit here in the off chance you might show up."

"I guess I'll just have to find somebody who _actually_ gives a damn about what I'm trying to--" 

A soft cry from the corner of the room cut him off mid-sentence and his gaze turned to try and locate the source.

Chloe stilled completely when she heard the baby, her first instinct was to turn around and run to her, but she stopped herself, "I'll look into it when I have time, for now, you should leave."

"Whose baby is that?" he demanded, moving to cross the room.

She ran in the direction of the crib, putting herself between him and the baby, "that is none of your business, Clark. I will look into the weapons as soon as I can and I will let you know what I can find."

Without thinking about it, Clark reached out and shoved her aside, not watching her as he peeked into the crib, staring down at the small infant, who was now wailing. "Did you _kidnap_ a baby?" he demanded.

Chloe hadn't been expecting _that_ , so she fell sideways against a chair and to the floor, her eyes wide when she realized what Clark had just _done_. She quickly got back on her feet and walked around the crib, picking Emily up and walking away from him, "get out," she told him, her heart beating fast, "leave us alone. She is none of your business, Clark and I mean it."

His eyes narrowed. "I _will_ find out what the hell is going on around here, Chloe. You can count on that." His jaw tensed and without warning, he looked up at the wall, fire shooting from his eyes. And then he vanished.

She gasped at the sudden heat, hugging Emily closer to her and closing her eyes tightly before opening them again, her eyes widening when she saw the symbol on the upper floor of the Watchtower. Without even thinking about it, she grabbed the few things she had brought with her, carefully not to upset the baby even more, and rushed to the elevator.

* * *

Oliver quickly made his way off the elevator to the clock tower and inside, only to find Chloe pacing the floor with Emily in her arms, wailing loudly. "What's going on?" Her call had been short, anxious, and vague, telling him she needed him back home as soon as possible. "What's wrong?" He moved to her side.

Chloe turned to face him, her eyes still wide as she tried to soothe the baby, "Clark knows." 

His eyes widened a little at that. "What happened?" he asked.

"He found out about the weapons, he thinks Tess made them, he came by to ask for help on finding where they were and she started to cry so he saw her," she took a deep breath, "I didn't tell him anything, but he knows she exists."

He relaxed a little, nodding. "All right, we can handle this."

" _How_? He said he was going to figure out what was happening, we need kryptonite, we need to surround her with it." She said urgently.

Oliver reached out and pressed his hand against her cheek. "All right, take a deep breath," he said gently. "I don't think Clark would hurt her, but we'll be careful. We knew we wouldn't be able to keep it from him forever."

Chloe shook her head a little and stared up at him even more, "you didn't see him, you didn't see what he was like, Oliver. He shoved me, and then he scorched his family crest on the Watchtower's wall." she told him carefully, rubbing Emily's back as she continued to cry.

He stared at her, stunned. "He _what_?" His jaw tightened at that, his eyes darkening.

"I don't know what happened to him, but I'm not taking any chances," she said firmly.

His hand dropped away from her face and he moved over to his phone, picking it up and dialing Mia's number instantly.

"What are you doing?" Chloe asked, frowning.

When Mia didn't pick up, he left her a message asking her to come to the clock tower as soon as possible. Then he opened the middle drawer of his desk, his jaw tight. "Do you have Kryptonite nearby?" he asked, not looking at her.

"Not here," she told him, watching him closely, "I have that storage on 32nd, what are you doing?"

He pulled out the silver and green ring, handing it over to her. "Put that on." He headed for the elevator.

"Oliver?" She called, eyes widening as she looked from the ring to him, "where are you going?"

"To find out what's going on," he told her, stepping onto the elevator. "Mia should be over soon."

"No," she told him, shifting the baby and grabbing his shirt then pulling him back into the apartment, "stop."

He turned to look at her, raising an eyebrow.

"You're not going after him, he _will_ hurt you, especially if he finds out we have the weapons, so _stop_ and let's think about this, Oliver." She said firmly, the baby starting to cry louder once more.

Oliver forced himself to take a deep breath and he reached out, taking Emily from her.

She sighed deeply as he did, relieved then rubbed her hand over her face, pausing for a second and reaching to undo her necklace, taking out the pendant she had on it and placing the ring there instead, "we will wait for Mia to get here, then we'll _both_ go get as many weapons as we can carry and bring it back here."

"So what do we do about the rogue boy scout?" he asked tensely, carefully rocking the baby in his arms. He pressed a kiss to her temple.

"Figure out what made him go rogue first," she told him, placing the necklace with the ring around Emily's neck and doing the clasp again, "he's not our target."

 _Speak for yourself_ , he thought, watching her, his jaw still tight. "Are you hurt?"

"No," she told him, not looking at him as she brushed a hand over Emily's hair then kissed the back of her head, relieved to see her calming down.

He relaxed just a little at that. "And he thinks that Tess was collecting the weapons?"

"Yes," she told him, feeling a little guilty, as much as she hated Tess, she now had an angry alien trying to track her down when she hadn't done anything wrong, "I didn't set him straight."

"She will," he said without a hint of doubt in his voice. He had no doubt that Tess knew who was responsible for the arsenal of Kryptonite weapons, and that she would roll over on them without a second thought, especially if her own ass was on the line.

"I don't doubt that, just one more reason why we need to protect what we can of those weapons," she told him, "and then go after Zod, we've wasted two months already, we can't waste anymore time."

He drew in a breath, nodding a little and meeting her eyes briefly, rubbing Emily's back as her crying softened into occasional whimpers. "You're right," he said quietly. They'd both been so caught up in the business of being parents that killing Zod had taken a backseat. And they had to stop him before it was too late.

Chloe blew out a breath and stepped closer, wrapping her arms around him and kissing the top of Emily's head as she got stuck between the two of them, "we just have to keep her safe, no matter what we have to do to make sure that happens."

"We will," he said without hesitation, his voice firm, determined.

"I know," she told him, turning her head to look up at him, "I'll go change and get things ready so we can go, and I'll try calling Mia again."

"All right." He nodded a little, watching her intently and then shifting to kiss her softly.

She kissed him back, reaching to cup his face and staring at him for a moment before taking a deep breath and nodding, "just stay with her," she said quietly before starting toward her bedroom.

Drawing in a breath, he watched her go, then shut his eyes, kissing Emily's temple once more and moving to sit down on the sofa. "Everything's going to be okay," he whispered to her. "We're going to take care of it."

* * *

About an hour later, they were driving up to the storage, Chloe was keeping her eyes out for Clark as Oliver drove, "I have arrows and bullets, let's grab those since they are smaller and then whatever we can get of the bigger weapons."

"What kind of bigger weapons are we talking about?" he asked curiously, glancing at her sideways as he drove.

"Swords, bullet-proof vests covered with kryptonite, daggers, I don't know what exactly is in this one, since I scattered the weapons in different containers."

Nodding a little, he focused on the road once more. "Any Kryptonite canons by chance?" A small smile tugged at his mouth.

"I didn't think those would be very practical," she told him, trying for a smile.

He reached out and covered her hand with his, lacing their fingers together silently.

She looked down at their hands, taking a deep breath as she squeezed his hand lightly in hers, "we'll wear the vests, grab everything we can and get back."

"All right," he agreed, nodding.

Chloe squeezed his hand and pointed to the left, "take the next turn."

Oliver did as instructed, his eyes widening at the sight of bright red and orange flames shooting into the sky. "What the hell..."

Her eyes widened too and she sat up, blinking a couple of times, "no..." 

He pulled the car to a stop and quickly climbed out, his eyes widening a little more as he saw a figure _fly_ away.

Chloe got out of the car just as quickly, her eyes widening as she looked up, "what was _that_?"

"I'm not sure," he whispered.

She sighed, looking at the fire, "the other closest location is twenty minutes away."

Oliver was silent for a few seconds, then nodded. "Let's go," he said. But he had a terrible feeling they were going to find the same thing there, too.

* * *

They had spent the past three hours driving around Metropolis and its surroundings, every single one of Chloe's stashes had been destroyed before they got to them, they had seen the person flying away in a couple of other occasions and by the time they made it to the Watchtower, Chloe had a sick feeling in her stomach, "I don't have much here," she told him, "but it should be enough to keep him away from her if he finds her."

Oliver's body was tense as he stared up at the symbol emblazoned on the wall. "And from us." His jaw tightened. Because the next time he saw Clark, he had the sincere desire to make the guy puke and writhe on the floor in pain.

Chloe followed his gaze and nodded then blew out a breath, staring at the wall for a second before walking over to one of the computer towers and pushing it aside with ease to uncover a hole in the wall and a vault behind it.

He raised an eyebrow as he followed her over to the vault. "Why do I have a feeling that there's still a hell of a lot I don't know about you?" he murmured.

She punched in a password then pressed her thumb against the pad and listened as the vault unlocked before pulling the heavy door open with some difficulty, she shrugged a little then smiled guiltily up at him, "if there is anything you want to know, feel free to ask."

Oliver started to say something when the vault door swung open. "Whoa," he uttered, staring with wide eyes.

Chloe chewed down on her bottom lip and reached inside the small space, "I figured I'd keep a small arsenal here, just in case," she told him, "it's mostly just the rocks, but I have a couple of daggers," she told him, picking one up and handing it to him.

He raised his eyebrows, turning the blade over in his hand and then tucking it into his waistband beneath his shirt and out of sight.

She picked up some of the smaller rocks and placed them in her jacket pockets before handing him some of them, "it'll probably be safer to put them around her room and not anywhere she can touch, I don't want to risk it."

"Agreed," he murmured, sliding some of the rocks into his pockets too. 

Chloe nodded a little and bit down on her bottom lip, "maybe we should have Bart check the other stashes? Actually, I can check them and we can send Bart in if any of them are still intact."

"Yeah, I think that'd be a good idea."

"Okay," she took a deep breath, "if you'll gather these up, I'll check the other locations."

"Aye aye, Captain," he teased, glancing at her sideways.

Chloe smiled a little at him then purposefully brushed against him as she made her way over to the main computer.

He watched her go, a smile tugging at his mouth as he turned back to the stock of weapons. He reached out and picked up a handful of Kryptonite-tipped arrows.

She typed for a long moment, her face falling as she checked each location and found the heat index for all of them elevated. A long moment later, she sighed and shook her head, "looks like he was faster than us, our best bet now is to wait for the containers to cool down and see what we can salvage, because even if he melted the weapons, he didn't destroy the kryptonite."

Oliver's jaw tensed a little. "Chloe, I'm not sure he was the only one involved in destroying it." His voice was quiet.

Chloe stilled at that, taking a deep breath and nodding slightly, that was her unspoken fear, she'd been thinking about it since they saw the person flying away in the first container. Nodding slightly, she let out her breath and turned to look at him, "I think you're right."

He stepped out of the vault and shut it, sealing it up quickly and moving to her side. "We should go." For all they knew Watchtower was next on the list.

She nodded a little, taking a deep breath and shutting down the computers, "let's go."

Oliver reached out and rested his hand on her back as they moved toward the door, then froze in place when Clark suddenly appeared in front of them, looking very unhappy.

Chloe stilled at the wind, looking from Oliver to Clark, her eyes widening a little.

"It was _you_!" He growled.

Unconsciously Oliver moved between him and Chloe. "You need to calm down _now_ ," he ordered.

"No," Clark said, stepping forward and narrowing his eyes, focusing on Chloe, " _you_ are the one who is storing Kryptonite weapons all over the country!" He accused, then stilled, his stomach turning as he stepped too close to them.

Chloe's eyes widened but she stepped forward, knowing she had rocks in her pockets and planning on using them to keep them down, "they weren't for _you_ Clark."

"You haven't even given them a _chance_!" he accused, taking a step away from them even as his stomach rolled. "What have you _done_?"

"I haven't done _anything_ ," she said, advancing a couple more steps, "I'm trying to protect _my_ people, just like you're trying to protect yours!"

"You've made this into a war," he told her, glaring.

Oliver's jaw tightened. "No, Clark, _Zod_ has made this into a war and you are playing right into his hands with your blind loyalty!"

"You seem to have chosen your side, Clark." She said blankly, staring at him.

"And I made the right choice," he told her, looking between the two of them, "you've done nothing but betray me!"

Oliver rolled his eyes at that. "Of course we have. We plot day and night--how do we keep Clark Kent from being happy? Oh wait, he does that all by himself and we have lives," he retorted. "Sit _down_."

"What for? So you can stab me in the back again?" Clark asked, his hands turning into fists.

"This isn't about _you_ , Clark," Chloe said, frustrated, "we are not going against you, but we can't trust Zod."

"He's the closest thing to family I have!"

"Oh Jesus." Unable to take anymore of the nonsense, Oliver moved forward and slammed his fist hard into Clark's face.

Clark fell to his knees, his stomach turning even more, his face throbbing and he felt dizzy, wrapping his arm around his stomach, he glared up at the two of them.

"Ollie," Chloe said, placing a hand on his arm but not really trying to stop as she looked down at Clark, knowing the proximity was only going to make him weaker. "We don't want to hurt you, Clark, but we will do what we have to to keep our people safe," she said firmly.

"Are you sure I can't just knock him out?" he asked, glancing at Chloe sideways. It would be much easier if he would just keep his mouth shut.

"I can't believe you're choosing _him_ over _me_ ," Clark said weakly, looking up at Chloe.

"I'm choosing what is right," she told him, stepping closer and getting in his face, "you have two choices, Clark and they are pretty simple: Either you stay out of our way, or I'm surrounding you with Kryptonite and leaving you here until we're done, what is it gonna be?"

Oliver's jaw tightened a little as he glared down at Clark, waiting for his answer.

"What are you going to do?" he asked, grimacing.

"Make sure our people are safe," she said tightly, kneeling down on the floor so she was closer to him, "and I'll do whatever it takes to make sure of that."

"I don't want earth destroyed, Chloe," he said harshly, gasping for breath.

"And that is _exactly_ what is going to happen if Zod sticks around, Clark," she told him, leaning closer, "Zod already has his powers, doesn't he?"

"There's no reason we can't all be here!"

Oliver shook his head, pulling out a couple of rocks and laying them beside his head. "Come on, Chloe."

"Sorry, Clark." She told him, but made no effort to sound like she meant it.

"You can't do this, Chloe!" He called as she placed another rock close to his chest.

"Knock him out," she told Ollie, her eyes still on Clark.

"One day you'll understand why we did this," Oliver told him before punching him hard in the face once more and knocking him unconscious.

Chloe let out a deep breath and looked at Clark for a moment longer, and then at Oliver, nodding at him, "let's go."

Rising to his feet, he nodded, as well, moving toward the door.

They were running out of time.


	6. Chapter 6

Oliver's expression was grim as he suited up into his Green Arrow uniform and headed back out of the secret room, glancing over at Mia, who was holding Emily. "Chloe still getting ready?" he asked quietly.

Mia nodded and took a deep breath, shifting the baby in her arms as she fed her her bottle, "yeah, but, are you _sure_ about this?" She said, watching him, "I mean, _I_ should be going with you."

"She's not going to stay behind. Not for this," he said softly, watching her. He drew in a breath, moving over to sit down beside her. "Mia...if things go wrong..."

"They're not!" She said instantly, staring at him.

Oliver held her gaze. " _If_ things go wrong, I need you to promise that you're going to make sure Emily's taken care of." His voice was soft.

Mia stared at him for a moment longer, her jaw tight then she looked down at Emily, shrugging, "yeah."

"Mia." He reached out and laid a hand on her arm. "We're going to do everything we can to make sure she gets to grow up with her parents." He paused. "But we have to have a backup plan and I trust you more than anyone else with this."

Mia glared at him at that, "she's my family too." She said dryly.

"I know she is." He leaned over and kissed the top of her head. "And you're mine."

"Then you better come back." She said tightly.

"Noted," he whispered, giving her arm a squeeze and rising to his feet.

Mia blew out a breath and focused on Emily, not wanting to look at Oliver.

Chloe walked into the room a moment later and focused her attention on Oliver, "are you ready?"

He gave her a short nod, picking up his crossbow and moving toward the elevator, his jaw set.

And that was when there was a bright flash of light--so bright it actually hurt his eyes and he shut them quickly. When he opened them again, he blinked, stunned to see none other than Lois Lane laying on the floor.

Mia blinked and pulled the baby closer to her, protectively.

Chloe covered her face instinctively, then blinked her eyes open, gasping and instantly rushing to her cousin's form on the floor, "Lois!"

Lois' hands were covered in blood and she sat up, drawing in a shuddering breath. " _Chloe!_ " She hugged her tightly.

She stilled at the sight of the blood, but hugged her cousin back just as tightly, closing her eyes, her stomach turning a little, she could only guess whose blood that way, "you're back, it's okay."

She clung to her cousin, closing her eyes and shuddering involuntarily.

Oliver stared at the blood on her hands, swallowing hard and turning to look at Mia.

Mia stared up at Oliver, her eyes wide but she didn't get up, just stared at him.

"Where is she? Is she safe?" Lois pulled away from Chloe slowly, her eyes red-rimmed from crying.

"She's here," Chloe told her, watching Lois for a moment longer then motioning to the couch where Mia sat with Emily, "she's safe."

She drew in a breath and then looked down at her hands. "Oh _God_." She quickly rose to her feet, rushing down the hall toward the bathroom and throwing up in the toilet.

Chloe blinked and looked from Lois, to Mia and Oliver, "I'll go check on her," she told them before following her cousin down the hall.

Oliver felt a nervous knot twist in his stomach, his heart beating more quickly than normal.

"Lo?" Chloe called, wincing as she saw her cousin kneeling on the floor. She stepped further into the bathroom and knelt down next to her, pulling her hair back and holding it away from her face. She had done that plenty of times before, although this time, she was guessing Lois wasn't sick from drinking too much.

Her body shuddered and after she'd finished throwing up, she quickly flushed the toilet. "I need to shower," she whispered.

"Okay," she said quietly, rubbing Lois' back gently, "I'll go find you some clothes you can change into, you can use one of these towels," she told her quietly, watching her worriedly.

"And you stay here, okay? And just...talk to me." She swallowed hard.

"Okay," she promised, "I'll stay here with you, then."

Nodding, Lois stood up slowly, her knees shaky. She shrugged out of her tattered clothes and quickly climbed into the shower, turning it on hot water immediately. "You're still here, right?" Her voice wavered.

Chloe's chest tightened and she nodded a little, sitting on the toilet after pulling the top down, "I'm here, I'm not going anywhere," she promised.

She laid her forehead against the tile and shut her eyes, forcing herself to take a few deep breaths. "What's going on?"

"You mean what is happening in this time?" She asked quietly, not sure if it was the best idea to talk to Lois about this now.

"Yes. Fill me in." She swallowed hard.

"Lo," Chloe shook her head a little, taking a deep breath, "you're shaken up, I don't think now is a good time..."

"I can handle it. I need to know what's going on, Chloe."

She considered that for a moment then rubbed her hands over her face, "Clark is acting weird, he found out I had stashes of kryptonite weapons all over the country and he burned all of them down, we think Zod has his powers and helped him get rid of the weapons, we trapped Clark in the Watchtower and we were about to go after Zod." She told her quickly.

Lois snapped the shower curtain back, staring at her with wide eyes. "You can't go after Zod by yourselves if he has his powers, Chloe!"

"We have kryptonite, Lo," she told her, watching her, "we don't think any of his followers have powers yet, and we can't ask the rest of our--" she paused, but she figured Lois knew enough already, so she went on, "-- team to kill someone, it's not fair."

"I'm coming with you." She ducked back into the shower, quickly washing her hair.

"Lois, no, you're not," she told her, standing up, "you need to stay with Emily, if anything happens, you need to take care of her."

"Mia can stay with Emily," she answered, determination in her voice.

"Lois," Chloe said firmly, "if the worst happens, _you_ need to be okay so you can convince Clark to do what is needed, no one else will be able to get to him like you can."

Her hand darted out to grab the towel as she shut the water off a moment later, wrapping it around herself and stepping out of the shower. "Then _you_ stay here. Mia and Ollie can go after Zod and I'll go babysit Clark."

"I'm not staying, Lois," she told her cousin seriously, "you go after Clark, see if you can get him to see our side, send him as back-up, but I need you to be safe."

"And I'm not losing _you_ ," she said just as seriously.

"I'll be safe, Lo," she promised, looking up at her, "but I need to do this, for Emily."

She rubbed her hands over her face. "I understand, but I didn't come all this way just to watch you..." She inhaled sharply, blinking back tears.

Chloe shook her head a little, "things will be different this time, it won't happen again," she whispered to her, her stomach turning a little at the confirmation.

"It wasn't Zod. It was another one of them. Alia." Her jaw tightened. "Tall. Weird, blue eyes. Long dark hair."

She stilled and nodded a little, "I'll keep an eye out for her," she paused, "were you at the Luthor mansion when..."

"It was in the middle of the street. We were so _close_ ," she whispered, a tear trickling down her cheek. "The sun was returning to normal."

Chloe took a deep breath and nodded a little, cupping Lois' face in her hand, "the sun is normal here still, we will be okay."

Lois nodded a little, swallowing hard.

"C'mon," she told her quietly, "let's get you some clothes."

She followed her across the hall to the guest room and sat down on the edge of the bed.

Chloe watched her for a second then kissed the top of her head, "is there anything we should know?" She asked before walking into the closet.

"Those towers can't go up," she whispered.

"They won't," she promised, "we've been watching Tess' projects closely."

"Good," Lois said quietly, her jaw tightening. "Chloe."

"Yeah?" She said, coming back out with some clothes.

"I think..." She shut her eyes, swallowing hard once more. "She may have to die, too."

Chloe's stomach dropped at that, "who? Alia?"

"Tess," she whispered.

"Oh..." Chloe said quietly, looking down, "what makes you say that?" It was one thing to take the life of the clone of an alien who had already tried to take over their home planet once, it was different to kill another human.

"She was helping them." She took the clothes from her cousin and dressed quickly.

"She is helping them here too, but without Zod, there isn't much she can do, Lo." She told her quietly.

"Okay." She wouldn't push that issue right now. And if worse came to worse, she'd take Tess out herself.

Chloe nodded a little and rubbed a hand over her arm, "c'mon, we'll drive you to the Watchtower."

Nodding, she followed Chloe out of the room and down the hall, determination in her face.

She watched Lois worriedly as they walked down the hall, she could only hope things went well at the mansion, she couldn't let Lois relive what she guessed her cousin had just gone through.

* * *

Oliver sat tensely behind the wheel of his car as they sat parked outside the Luthor mansion. "Are you ready?" he whispered.

"Yeah," she told him, taking a deep breath and adjusting the crossbow in her hand, she had practiced a little, and felt like it was easier, almost like a gun.

"You don't have to do this, Chloe," he murmured. "I can handle it."

"Yes, I do," she breathed, looking over at him, "we'll do this together," she told him.

He gazed at her intently, then leaned in and kissed her, one hand winding in her hair.

Chloe kissed him back, wrapping an arm around him and holding on to him as she closed her eyes tightly, her heart beating fast against her chest.

Oliver leaned his forehead against hers, breaking the kiss a moment later. "Let's do this."

She took a deep breath and nodded, looking at him for a moment longer before reaching for the handle and pushing the door open.

He did the same, sliding his glasses on and heading for the front door, shooting the security guards with two sedation darts.

Chloe followed in silence, grabbing her kryptonite dagger from the back of her pants and holding on to it with one hand while holding on to the crossbow with the other as they walked past the guards, then made their way to the top of the stairs, Chloe nodded a little in the direction of the study, they knew that Zod had been spending a lot of time there, hopefully, this would be one of those times.

Oliver could hear the voices as they approached, his hand tightening a little more around the crossbow. He glanced at her sideways, nodding slightly and taking the lead, kicking open the door to the study.

Chloe held her breath and followed him inside, her eyes widening when she saw Zod himself sitting down by the fire, a glass in his hand and he looked up at them, a mildly surprised expression on his face.

Oliver leveled his bow at Zod, his heart pounding in his chest. He heard Tess say something, her tone urgent, but he was too focused to catch what it was. He fired the arrow and he watched as it embedded itself into the man's chest.

Without blinking, Chloe rushed over to where Tess was, sitting across from Zod. The other woman was about to stand up and Chloe jumped, knocking her down and falling with her the same second Zod's glass shattered on the floor.

Tess hit the floor hard, too stunned to react at first. And then she reached for a sharp shard of glass.

Without warning, another figure yanked Chloe off Tess violently, shoving her toward the fireplace.

"Ollie!" Chloe gasped in pain as the person who grabbed her wrapped an arm around her neck and pushed her toward the fire, but she caught Oliver's eye and nodded at Zod, who was trying to pull the arrow from his chest.

Tess was approaching Chloe, glass in hand, until she heard the name and stilled, staring at the 'Green Arrow' and throwing the shard of glass in his direction instead.

He cursed as the glass sliced right into his arm and he moved quickly, crossing the room and stabbing Zod with the Kryptonite dagger.

Chloe tried to free herself, coughing as the arm tightened around her neck but when Tess attacked Oliver, she didn't think twice before leaning back against her captor and kicking her legs in Tess' direction, trying to knock the other woman down once more.

Oliver turned quickly, reaching out and grabbing tightly onto her arms. "I _don't_ want to hurt you, Mercy, but I will if I have to," he said harshly, his voice distorted.

"You have your own problems to worry about," Alia told Chloe darkly, pulling a dagger from her own belt.

She stilled when she heard a woman's voice, her jaw clenching when she saw a flash of dark hair. She didn't know if this was the woman Lois had warned her about, but she wasn't about to take chances, "let go of me," she told her, before lifting her dagger and stabbing the woman's arm with all the strength she could muster.

Alia grimaced, a faint cry escaping her before she slammed her own dagger into Chloe's stomach, releasing her.

Chloe felt like all the air had left her all of the sudden, her eyes widened as she tried to take a deep breath, but couldn't. The crossbow slipped from her hand and she fell to her knees, her eyes glassy as she looked down, reaching for the dagger instinctively, but she didn't have enough strength to pull it out.

Oliver turned in time to see the dark haired woman picking up a sharp, jagged piece of glass. He shoved Tess away, lifting his crossbow and firing an arrow right into her heart. He stared as she hit the ground hard a moment later, then shifted his gaze to Chloe. "Oh god. No," he whispered, dropping the bow and moving over to her.

She was still staring down at the dagger, she could barely feel her body anymore, everything felt numb; even as she fell to the floor sideways, she didn't feel the impact, or the way her body was shaking convulsively, but she did feel his presence. Her eyes were glassy as she turned her head slowly to look up at him, "so- sorr-y" she whispered.

"Chloe, stay with me." He quickly wound his arms around her to slow her descent to the floor.

Chloe dropped her hands from the dagger and looked up at him, coughing a little, although she barely noticed. She also didn't notice the familiar strong wind and the new person standing in the room.

Oliver looked up quickly, his expression surprised as he saw Clark there. He tensed, not entirely sure if the other man was there to help or finish them off.

Clark's jaw was tight as he looked around, he could only hear two heartbeats and a faint one, he saw Zod's body on the floor, Tess standing there, then he saw Oliver and Chloe, that's when he realized whose heartbeat was the faint one, "what happened?"

"Are you here to help?" he demanded, his voice harsh.

He didn't answer, instead, he reached down and picked Chloe up, "she needs a hospital."

"Go," he said without hesitation, flinching as the other man sped from the room. Then he rose to his feet slowly, blood staining his uniform and his hands as he turned to face Tess.

Tess stared at him, shaking her head slowly as she did, "you just doomed us all."

"No, we just _saved_ us all," he said harshly. "Because we were all going to die because of this Kandorian bullshit, Tess."

"Do you think it's over just because you killed him?" She demanded, "there are thousands of others, Oliver and now they won't want an alliance."

"They're just humans right now. They don't have their abilities. And you can be sure that I will do everything under the sun to make sure it stays that way." He glared at her.

"We'll see," Tess said tightly, staring at him and crossing her arms over her chest.

He stalked toward her, getting in her face. "You can be dealt with too," he told her coldly.

"You're going to kill me?" Tess said, arching a single brow and smirking a little, "go ahead, Oliver."

"I won't have to," he informed her, pulling out his cell phone.

"What are you going to do? Call someone to do it?" She asked, slightly amused.

Oliver smirked faintly at that. "I don't have to kill you, Tess. I just have to have your memory completely altered."

"And how are you going to do that?" She asked, her smirk faltering slightly.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "With a little...magic." He paused. "Hi, it's Oliver. You said to call if I never needed your assistance. I need it now."

Tess laughed, mostly out of nerves, "magic?"

He hung up the phone a moment later. "What, aliens can exist but magic can't?" His jaw tightened. "You should have chosen the right side, Tess."

"I did choose the right side, Oliver. The side of change, or do you think things can stay how they are?"

"Save it," he ordered, turning toward the door and exhaling when Zatanna suddenly appeared.

"What's going on?" she asked, her eyes wide as she looked around.

"Tess is jonesing to bring on the apocalypse and has the ability to do so. I need you to make her forget all about it," he said seriously.

Tess stilled when the woman suddenly appeared in her study, without thinking twice, she picked up the crossbow Chloe had dropped and held it up in the direction of the newcomer, "no one is altering my memory."

"Pord ti," Zatanna responded, waving her hand and watching as the crossbow dropped to the floor. "The apocalypse, huh? That's aiming awfully high." She raised an eyebrow, moving toward Tess.

Her eyes widened as the crossbow fell and she said nothing, just stared at the other woman instead.

"Zee?" Oliver's voice was quiet as he headed for the door.

"Yeah?"

His jaw tensed. "Replace it all with happy memories," he told her. And without waiting for a response, he left the room.

He had to get to the hospital.


	7. Chapter 7

Clark stood in the waiting room with Lois, he'd been watching her pace for a while now and he was getting impatient, "do you need anything?" He asked finally, pulling his hands from his pockets.

"I just need to know what's going on," she responded, raking a hand through her dark hair.

"It shouldn't be much longer," he said, watching her closely, "it's been over two hours."

"She was _stabbed_ , Clark." Lois turned to look at him, her eyes wide.

"I know," he told her, walking closer to her, "but I brought her in quickly, hopefully she didn't lose too much blood."

Nodding a little, she resumed pacing once more, her heart hammering in her chest.

Clark sighed a little and looked down, then stilled when he heard a familiar voice asking about Chloe. His jaw clenched and he looked at Lois, "I'll be back later." He told her, "call me if you need."

"I will." She barely looked up as he disappeared.

Oliver quickly made his way into the waiting room. "Anything?" he asked anxiously.

Lois looked over at Oliver and shook her head.

He raked a hand through his hair. "I knew I shouldn't have let her come with me," he whispered.

"I shouldn't have let her," Lois said, shaking her head. "It was that woman, wasn't it? Alia?"

"Is that her name?"

"Dark hair, blue eyes," her jaw clenched, "cold-hearted bitch."

Oliver swallowed hard at that. "Sounds about right."

Lois closed her eyes and rubbed a hand over her face, "I'll kill her myself."

"She's already dead," he murmured.

She paused at that and took a deep breath, nodding.

He looked up as Emil approached, and he held his breath for a moment, reaching out and winding his fingers around Lois' arm silently.

Lois looked at the doctor, her stomach turning at the sight of the blood on his shirt.

"She's stable," Emil said instantly, looking at the two of them.

"How bad is it?" Oliver asked, moving closer to the other man.

"Not good," he said sincerely, knowing there was no point in lying to them, "she lost a lot of blood and there were two perforations in her stomach, but she made it through the surgery and now it's a matter of seeing how she'll heal."

He felt his chest tighten and he looked at Lois. "Do you still have the ring?"

Lois looked at him and shook her head, "we gotta wait, Ollie. If she doesn't make it, we'll use it."

"I know. I just wanted to make sure you didn't give it to..." His jaw tightened a little.

"No." She told him.

Emil looked between the two of them, then shook his head a little, "she's in the ICU, you can see her for the next forty-five minutes before they close down visitations. But we are keeping her sedated for the next couple of days."

Oliver rubbed a hand over his face tiredly. "Go ahead," he whispered to Lois.

"You're not coming?" She frowned.

"It's one at a time in ICU," he said quietly. He'd spent enough time around the hospital to know.

Emil nodded a little then motioned for Lois to start toward the hall. She frowned at Oliver but nodded, walking with the doctor, she had to make sure she wasn't losing her cousin twice in the same day.

* * *

Oliver sat slumped in a seat beside Chloe's bed a couple days later, his head resting on the mattress as he dozed off into a restless, dreamless sleep. His hand was wrapped around hers tightly even in his sleep.

She woke up slowly from a dreamless sleep, her vision was blurry and she had to blink a couple of times to be able to focus her vision. Frowning a little, she looked around then down to her side when she felt someone holding her hand in a tight grip, "Ollie?" she whispered, clearing her throat, her mouth was impossibly dry.

He jerked his head up quickly, his eyes widening when they met her green eyes. "Oh thank God," he whispered.

Chloe swallowed then shifted on the bed, trying to sit up but stopping when a sharp pain ran through her, she gasped and stilled, "what happened?"

"Easy." He rose to his feet, leaning down and kissing her forehead tenderly. "Do you remember anything?"

She raised her free hand and rubbed her face, shaking her head a little, "Lois."

"She's safe," he assured her. "And back."

Chloe took a deep breath and winced, raising a hand to her stomach, at least she hadn't been dreaming about her cousin, "Zod?"

He gently cupped her cheek. "Dead. So's Alia."

She closed her eyes, leaning into his touch and nodding a little as she relaxed, "she stabbed me."

"I'm sorry," Oliver whispered, wincing. "I wasn't fast enough."

Chloe shook her head a little, squeezing his hand slightly, "they are dead."

"I called Zatanna," he murmured. "She altered Tess' memories."

"To what?" She asked, opening her eyes again.

"I don't know," he admitted.

"Emily?" She asked, frowning a little more, this time with worry.

"She's with Mia," he said softly. "She's fine."

At that, Chloe relaxed a little and closed her eyes again, "are you okay?"

Oliver nodded. "Yeah, I'm all right. Just been worried about you." He kissed her forehead once more. "I should let Emil know you're awake again."

"Okay," she said tiredly, lifting her free hand to touch his face.

"Chloe?" He swallowed hard, gazing down at her and leaning into her touch.

"Hm?" She answered, opening her eyes again.

Oliver held his breath for a moment. "I love you." His voice was soft, almost inaudible.

Her stomach clenched a little at the words and she winced, then swallowed, her mouth still dry, "love you too," she whispered back at him, her grip tightening around his fingers.

His eyes widened a little at that and he leaned down, kissing her softly on the lips. "I'll be right back."

She closed her eyes again, kissing him softly then nodding and sighing softly, already half asleep again.

He watched as her eyes drifted shut again and he pressed a kiss to the back of her hand, heading out into the hallway in search of Emil.

Emil was just on his way toward the room when he saw Oliver, he frowned, "something wrong?"

He shook his head. "She's awake," he told her with a faint, tired smile.

"Ah," he nodded, smiling a little as he adjusted his glasses, "I thought she might be waking up soon, I'll take a look at her."

Oliver nodded and headed back to the room quickly, moving to her bedside.

Emil followed and smiled softly when Chloe opened her eyes again, "how are you feeling?" He asked, moving to the other side of the bed.

"Thirsty, kinda out of it," she said, glancing at Ollie then back at Emil.

Oliver took her hand once more, squeezing it gently and watching as the doctor began to check her over.

She squeezed his hand back and looked at him for a long moment then down at herself, "how long do I have to be here for?"

A smile tugged at his mouth. He knew it wouldn't take her long to start asking when she could get out of the hospital.

"At least another week or so," Emil said, "I'll ask them to bring you some water, but you won't be able to eat solid foods for a while."

Chloe frowned at that, "a _week_?"

"You lost a lot of blood, Chloe," Oliver told her softly.

"And we can't risk putting unnecessary pressure on your stomach, we don't want the stitches to open." Emil said seriously.

Chloe sighed softly and nodded, frowning a little.

"I'll be back later to do routine check-ups," Emil said, picking up her chart from the end of the bed and scribbling something quickly, "let me know if you need anything."

Oliver watched him go then gently smoothed the hair back and out of her face. "I'll be here with you the whole time," he whispered.

She closed her eyes for a moment then shook her head, "you should go home, be with Emily."

"She's in good hands," he promised, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

"Mia shouldn't have to babysit her for so long, Oliver," she said quietly, "she's just a kid."

"Which is why I'll be relieving her tonight," Lois announced as she stepped into the room, grinning brightly and holding up a huge balloon bouquet.

Chloe paused and turned to look at Lois, smiling a little at the look on her cousin's face, it was much better than the last time.

"It's about time you woke up, Sleeping Beauty," she teased, moving farther into the room and setting the balloons down on the nightstand. She leaned over and kissed her cousin's cheek.

Oliver squeezed Chloe's hand gently. "I'll give you two some time to talk," he said softly, heading for the door.

She squeezed his hand back then smiled a little at her cousin, "good to see you too." Chloe said quietly.

Lois watched Oliver leave, then looked back down at her cousin. "How are you feeling?"

"Kind of out of it," she repeated, "and like someone punched me in the stomach about a thousand times."

She winced at that, holding her breath for a moment. "But you're going to be okay," she murmured, tucking some hair behind Chloe's ear.

Chloe smiled a little and nodded, shifting carefully on the bed to make room for Lois to sit down, "you were in the future, huh?"

"Yeah," she said quietly, carefully sitting down on the edge of the bed, keeping her eyes on her cousin's face. Like if she looked away, Chloe would just vanish right in front of her.

"What did you see?" She asked quietly, not missing the way Lois was staring at her and reaching out for her hand.

Lois drew in a breath and let it out slowly. "Hell on earth."

She closed her eyes for a moment and nodded a little, "Zod is dead, that won't happen anymore."

She shut her eyes, as well. "I know." She paused for a moment. "Though it does beg the question."

Chloe frowned a little, watching Lois silently and waiting for her to go on.

"What _will_ happen now?" Lois asked almost inaudibly.

Sighing softly, Chloe shook her head, "there is no way for us to know that, but the important thing is that the future you saw has been changed, you're back and we'll keep Emily safe."

She was silent for a moment. "Can I ask you something?"

Chloe nodded a little and pursed her lips together, "go ahead."

"You and Ollie..." She glanced toward the door, then back at her cousin. "Are you two together?"

Chloe frowned a little, worried at the question and nodded slightly, "yeah," she whispered, "were we not... in the future?" She asked carefully, doing her best to ignore the tightness in her chest.

Lois relaxed. "No, you were. I just wasn't sure how sending Emily back in time might change things between you," she admitted.

She relaxed at that, nodding slightly, "we were kind of just... messing around before, but, it kinda became something else in the past couple of months."

Lois smiled, nodding, as well. "Good." She gently rubbed Chloe's arm. "You're good for each other." 

She smiled a little, watching her cousin for a moment, "how were we? In the future?"

"One hell of a team." Her voice was quiet.

Chloe took a deep breath, wincing a little then pursing her lips together, "what else can you tell me?"

Lois looked down for a moment. "You--future you--found out you were pregnant right before you and Ollie came to rescue me from Major Zod." She paused. "You asked me to stay, and I couldn't say no. Not when you needed me." She swallowed hard. "You were their leader."

" _I_ was?" She frowned, blinking a couple of times, "why? What about Ollie?"

"Apparently you saved his life," she told her.

"Oh?" She frowned, "what happened?"

Lois watched her closely. "Apparently Oliver..." She glanced toward the door and lowered her voice. "Killed Lex Luthor. He went on this downward spiral. Cage fighting, drinking, drugs. And you somehow pulled him out of it." She paused, cocking her head to look at her cousin. "Did that happen here, too?"

Chloe stilled at that and looked away, opening her mouth and closing it a second later then nodding, "yeah."

She nodded a bit. "Who knew my little cousin had her very own team of superheroes?" A smile touched her mouth.

Cocking her head, Chloe looked at her cousin again, "I guess, you found out about that too?" She said quietly, "I hope you know that it's not that I didn't trust you, I just... knowing that secret, it would put you in danger, Lo."

"I know, Chloe," she said sincerely. "I get it." She gave her hand a squeeze.

Chloe nodded, squeezing Lois' hand back, "I'm glad you know." She said just as sincerely.

Lois smiled at that. "You should probably rest," she told her.

"Are you going to go check on Em?" She asked quietly.

"Yeah. Don't worry. I'll take good care of her," Lois promised.

"I know you will," she said quietly, smiling softly and watching Lois for a moment, "and I hope you know you will have to help me with her, a lot."

She flashed her a smile. "Of course."

"Okay," Chloe nodded, relaxing slightly, "I'll have more questions for you when I'm not on drugs," she said, smiling softly.

Lois nodded a little and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Rest. I'm sure Ollie will be back any minute."

She squeezed her hand then adjusted against the pillows and closed her eyes again, "love you," she whispered.

"I love you too, Chlo." She watched her for a moment, then drew in a breath and headed for the door.


	8. Chapter 8

Eight long days later, Emil finally allowed Chloe to go home, with several conditions and rules she had to follow, including not picking up Emily, but she would take it, at least she got to be back in the Clocktower and be around her if nothing else. They hadn't brought her in at all since a hospital wasn't really a good place for a baby, so it had been ten whole days since Chloe had seen her at all, and Ollie had only gone home a couple of times to check on things or pick up something one of them needed.

"I can't wait to see her," Chloe admitted, shifting slightly as she watched the numbers in the elevator panel ascending.

Oliver smiled softly at her, squeezing her hand. "It's good to be home," he said quietly.

"Yeah," she agreed quietly, "has Lois been staying here?" She asked, frowning a little. Not sure if her cousin had gone back to the Talon apartment at all yet.

He nodded. "She and Mia, yeah. "

"Did you ever wonder how you went from being on the top of the most desirable bachelors list to having four women pretty much full time in your life?" She teased. 

"Nope," he said, shaking his head and grinning. "I'm just that lucky."

She smiled softly at that and squeezed his hand, "well if you need to call AC, Vic and Bart and go hang out with them for a while, no one is going to blame you."

"Are you kidding me?" He raised an eyebrow. "And miss being surrounded by the prettiest women on the planet? Not likely." He winked.

Chloe shook her head and grinned a little, linking her fingers with his, "you have only been around Lois and I together for a limited amount of time, I'd hold on to that offer if I were you," she teased.

He chuckled, leaning over and kissing her cheek softly. When the elevator stopped, he opened the grating and led her out slowly, grinning brightly when he saw everyone gathered around, balloons and flowers everywhere.

She stilled, her eyes widening when she saw everyone, she hadn't seen the rest of the team in a long time, but there they were, also Mia and Lois, who was holding Emily, Chloe looked up at Oliver and smiled, shaking her head a little, "and you allowed this to happen," she teased.

"He arranged it to happen," Lois spoke up, grinning and moving to her cousin's side.

"Should have figured," she said, squeezing Oliver's hand then looking at the others, "I'll get to you in a second," she promised then turned to look down at Emily, smiling more, her eyes bright as she leaned down and kissed the top of her head, wishing she could hold her, "hi, Em." She whispered, smiling as she turned her little head to look up at her with bright green eyes.

Oliver held his breath at the sight. "Why don't you go sit down on the sofa and get comfortable and you can hold her?" he suggested softly. The restriction had been on not picking her up.

Chloe nodded a little and brushed her finger over Emily's arm then took a deep breath and pulled back reluctantly and let go of Oliver's hand, smiling at their other guests before walking over to the couch and slowly sitting down.

Lois followed her, waiting until she was ready before very carefully shifting the child into Chloe's arms.

Emily cooed, smiling up at her.

Chloe's chest tightened as she looked down at her, her eyes tearing up a little as she smiled back at the baby, unable not to, "hi," she said again, leaning her face down as Emily reached to touch her nose, "I missed you." She whispered.

"She looks just like you," Bart decided with a grin. "Which definitely beats the alternative."

Oliver made a face at him.

After pressing a kiss to Emily's tiny palm, Chloe took a deep breath and smiled at Bart, "I think she looks like a really good mix."

"I think she looks like Ollie, except for her eyes," Mia said, shrugging.

"Well, let's face it. She was bound to be gorgeous between the two of you," Lois said with a smirk.

Oliver draped his arm around Mia's shoulders, giving her a warm smile.

"I don't know who she looks like, but kid is beautiful," AC added, then nudged Dinah, "think we could compete with that?"

Dinah smirked at him and raised an eyebrow. "I'm not against trying."

Victor grimaced. "Oversharing, Guys. Oversharing."

Mia made a face and turned her head against Oliver's shoulder, "seriously, I need to bleach my brain or something."

Chloe grinned a little and shook her head, looking at Dinah and AC, "I think you better start trying fast, Em needs company."

"Agreed, Tower," AC grinned, wrapping an arm around Dinah's shoulders.

Oliver grinned at Mia's reaction, and winked at Chloe.

Lois smirked. "For that matter, once you're healed, Chlo, you two could get busy on a sibling."

"Ew," Mia said, then paused, lifting her head and frowned, "wait, how do you know that, if you have another kid, it won't be Emily again?"

Oliver blinked at that, raising his eyebrows. "That's...a good question."

Chloe cocked her head a little, "she might be," she said, frowning as she considered, "but we already changed things and we're obviously not going to give her the same name, so even if they have identical DNA, they will still be different," she said.

"Man, this just got all kinds of weird, where's the food?" Bart said.

"Where food usually is," Vic said wryly. "In the kitchen, Impulse." He shook his head, leading the way.

"Well, at least you didn't rule it out," Lois said with a bright grin. "She will need a little sister to look after."

Chloe stilled at that, watching as AC, Dinah and Mia went to the kitchen too, surprised that she _hadn't_ ruled it out right away, especially considering she normally would have, "well, considering I don't even have to have sex to have a kid, I don't think I have much of a choice in the matter."

"You missed the childbirth part," Lois said with a raised eyebrow. "Consider yourself lucky."

She wrinkled her nose at that and nodded, "I am," she paused, looking down at Emily again then back at Lois, "was it horrible?"

Lois held her breath for a moment, looking down at Emily. "It wasn't ideal," she whispered. "There were no pain meds, no doctors." She swallowed hard.

Oliver watched her, feeling his chest tighten at the look on her face.

"You delivered her." Lois looked up at him suddenly.

Chloe's eyes widened at that, she looked from Lois to Oliver and back, "he did?"

"Yeah. It was the four of us." She motioned among them. "Mia was there, too."

Oliver moved to sit down on the other side of Chloe, reaching out and gently brushing Emily's cheek with his finger. "I didn't pass out or anything?" he joked.

Lois rolled her eyes. "No."

"Well, _if_ we ever have a kid," Chloe said, looking down at Emily and smiling softly as she turned to look at Oliver, "we will definitely not be repeating that experience."

He chuckled involuntarily, meeting her eyes. "Agreed," he said with a nod, rubbing her back gently.

Chloe shook her head a little as she looked at him and kissed his cheek before looking back at Lois, "it's good to have you back, Lo. And thank you for watching over Em."

"Anytime." Lois leaned down and kissed the top of Emily's head. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving. I'm gonna see if there's anything left." She rolled her eyes and rose to her feet, heading toward the kitchen.

She watched as Lois left the room then looked at Ollie and smiled softly, "thank you for inviting everyone," she said sincerely. It was good to see all of them and to know that they had definitely made it through the Zod problem.

"It seemed appropriate," he told her with a soft smile in return. He rested his chin on her shoulder, gazing down at Emily in her arms. "She does look a lot like you."

"I still think her eyes are shaped like yours, and she has your nose," Chloe whispered, looking down at the baby as she laid her head over Ollie's, "I missed her, but I didn't realize how much until I saw her again."

"She missed you, too," he murmured. "She hasn't taken her eyes off you." He kissed her cheek.

Chloe's chest clenched at that and she hugged Emily a little closer, "she's never moving away, I've decided," she whispered, "she'll have to go to college in the same city we live in and she will have her career wherever we are."

Oliver grinned. "Yeah, I'm good with that," he agreed, a warm feeling in his chest at all the implications her 'we' brought along with it.

"Good, you can help me reinforce it," she told him, smiling and turning her head to kiss his temple before looking down at Emily again and kissing the top of her head.

His eyes were bright. "Count on it, Professor," he whispered.

Her chest tightened a little more and her eyes teared up a little as she shifted closer to Oliver, but kept her eyes on Emily, who had found her hair and was tangling her chubby fingers in it curiously, "I love you," she whispered, not to either of them in particular, but she meant it to both of them.

"We love you, too," he told her quietly, leaning his head against hers and pressing a kiss to her cheek.

Chloe sniffed a little and smiled, turning her head and pressing her lips to his softly.

Oliver kissed her back without hesitation, lifting his hand to cup her cheek.

She leaned into his touch and deepened the kiss a little more, wanting to let him know she meant the words, because she knew she wasn't always great with showing it, but she was going to have to make an effort to change that, both for him and for Em.

"Thank you," he whispered.

Chloe blinked her eyes open a moment later and looked at him, confused, "what for?" She whispered.

"For all of it, Chloe," he said quietly, watching her intently.

She sniffed a little and shook her head, "you have nothing to thank me for, Ollie," she said sincerely, "you were thrown into this with me and I'm glad we're both still here, because I couldn't do this on my own."

"You're the one who brought me back," he reminded her softly. "You opened my eyes, Chloe."

"And you did the exact same thing for me," she whispered sincerely, holding his gaze.

Oliver kissed her softly once more, resting his head against hers. "Family."

Chloe smiled softly, nodding and brushing her nose against his before looking down at Emily again, "we are."

* * *

It took Clark a few days to finally find Oliver in his office. Whenever he tried to listen in to find him, he'd been at home with Chloe, and this part was still weird for him to think about, their child. Lois had explained everything to him, about being in the future and about them sending the child back in time, but that didn't excuse what Chloe and Oliver had done.

He thought about just speeding into Oliver's office so he wouldn't be noticed, but with all the security around the building and with him not being able to trust Oliver anymore, he figured it was better to take the long way, so he took the elevator and spoke with Oliver's assistant, he listened when Oliver paused when the woman told him the name of the person who was there to see him and finally made his way inside the office, tensing as he pushed the door open and stepped in, then closed the door behind himself, but didn't say anything.

Oliver didn't stand up to greet him, simply leaned back in his chair, folding his hands on his desk. He was surprised it had taken Clark this long to show up, frankly.

Clark sighed at the silence and took a deep breath, his jaw tight when he turned to face Oliver, remaining silent for a moment longer, "what have you done to Tess?"

He raised an eyebrow at that. "I asked for a little help getting rid of all her memories related to you, me, Chloe and the Kandorians."

His eyes narrowed and he took a few more steps toward Oliver's desk, "what right did you have to do that, Oliver?"

"The right to protect my family. The right to protect the _world_ , Clark," he answered just as sharply.

"Tess was just doing what she thought was right, you had no right to alter her memories!" Clark said tightly.

"You mean like you did with Chloe's?" He rose to his feet, his eyes narrowed and dark.

Clark stilled at that, his jaw clenching, "I was _protecting_ her, and maybe if she didn't know about my secret, she would still be happy with Jimmy and he would still be alive and she would have the life she deserved." He said tightly.

"That's bullshit and you damn well know it," he said harshly. "You were protecting _yourself_. Because you were tired of being inconvenienced. At least I did what I did to keep the world safe." He shook his head a little.

"To keep the baby safe," Clark corrected him, "you didn't care about the world and at least I never turned Chloe into a murderer."

"Yeah, because Emily would be the only one in danger if a hostile race of aliens took over and enslaved all of humanity," he bit out. "Wake up, Clark. Lois told you what happened in a future where Zod and Alia were alive. And you may not like me or trust me, but I know you do her."

"How long until you make more excuses and start killing the rest of my people, Oliver?" He asked, tensing his jaw again.

"As long as you don't feed them your blood and they don't get their powers, I have no reason to care about what _your_ people do," he informed him.

"And if I do?" Clark said, stepping closer, "are you going to kill me too?"

"If I have to choose between killing you and saving the world?" Oliver met his eyes. "In a heartbeat."

Clark stared down at him for a moment longer and shook his head, his expression tense, angry, "I should have known from the beginning not to trust you and you have brainwashed all the others, including Chloe. You better stay away from Lois."

Oliver actually snorted. "I didn't have to brainwash anyone except for Tess. Unlike you, I don't pretend to be someone's friend and decide to mind-rape them on a whim." His jaw tightened. "They just happen to see the same thing that I do: that you're all self-righteous talk about good and evil. Well, let me tell you, Boy Scout." There was more than a hint of disgust in his tone. "The world isn't black and white and it never will be. And unless you wake up, you'll never be a symbol of anything for anyone because you're too fucking narrow-minded and self-centered to be able to make big decisions about saving the planet."

"This is what the world needs, someone who can tell the difference between right and wrong," Clark said, placing his hands over Oliver's desk and leaning down to glare at the other man, "not someone who will only follow the rules when it's convenient to them!"

"The world needs someone who can make hard judgement calls in a timely matter, not after it's already ended. If we'd left it up to you, the entire team, including myself and Chloe, and over half the world's population would be _dead_ thanks to your 'only family' Zod. So no, I don't think you _are_ what the world needs, Clark. You need to grow up and pull your head out of your ass," he responded evenly, glaring back at him.

"This isn't about _me_ , Oliver, it's about _you_ making wrong judgments--" Clark stilled when he heard the door opened and turned around to see Chloe coming inside the office, pushing a stroller.

When Ollie's assistant told Chloe _who_ Oliver was in a meeting with, she hadn't even blinked before making her way into the office. Sincerely surprised that it had taken Clark _that_ long to talk to one of them, but she wasn't surprised that he had confronted Oliver instead of her. He had never fully trusted Oliver anyway, but she was glad she had caught him there because she didn't want to have to go find him once Oliver told her what had happened.

"Clark," she greeted, then closed the door, not missing the thick tension between the two men as she turned to face them again, holding Oliver's gaze for a moment, "what are you doing here?" She said, turning to Clark once more.

"Clark was just _leaving_ ," Oliver said tensely, locking his eyes on the other man again.

Clark's eyes narrowed at Oliver for a moment longer then, with his jaw tight, he nodded once, "we're not done," he told Oliver, then started toward the door, without looking at Chloe.

"Well," Chloe said, placing a hand in Clark's arm and looking up at him, "if you're not then, then by all means, continue. I can take a pretty good guess as to what you're here for anyway, Clark." She glanced at Oliver, "did he stop by to call you a murderer? Accuse you of mistreating his people?"

Oliver wasn't the least bit surprised by her deduction and he simply raised an eyebrow, a hint of a smirk on his mouth.

"It's the _truth_ ," Clark bit out, staring at her intently. "He's turned you into a killer."

Chloe smirked very slightly back at Oliver, the look on his face was enough to tell her that was exactly what Clark had been accusing him of, "he hasn't turned me into _anything_ , Clark. I've been wanting to get rid of Zod since he first showed up and _he_ talked me out of it until we found Emily," she told him sharply, "and if you want to know the truth, I would have gone after Zod even without the baby and even without Oliver's help because you might have a selective memory, but I remember _vividly_ what he did when Brainiac brought him back the last time, so if you have a problem with anything we did, you should be talking to _me_."

Clark stared at her in disbelief while Oliver's chest swelled with _pride_. "He wasn't the same as he was before, Chloe. He hadn't hurt anyone!" He shook his head. "This isn't you."

"This _is_ me," she corrected him, "I'm doing what I have always done, Clark, I'm doing whatever it takes to make things right and with Zod gone, Earth still belongs to _us_ , the humans who have taken you in and accepted you as one of our own, the people you should be _protecting_ according to Jor-El, not the people you should be turning your back on the second the man responsible for the destruction of your home planet, for the death of your _entire family_ claims to be here in peace!"

"It's not up to you to play _God_!" He said, raising his voice and staring her down. "You don't get to decide who lives and who dies because of something that may or may not happen! It's not right, Chloe!"

"And you do?" She said calmly, "even after what Lois told you she saw, no, what she _lived_ if Zod stayed in power, you still think he should have gotten away with it?" She asked, staring up at him, not at all intimidated by his size or how close to her he was standing, "you may not be willing to do what was necessary, but I was not going to watch my people, my _family_ suffer through enslavement and torture just because _you_ think Zod could be saved. I'm not willing to take that risk and regardless of what you think is right or wrong, I stand behind my actions and I would have done everything again if necessary."

"Then you're no better than the supposed killer he was going to turn out to be," he said harshly. "You're a murderer. Both of you."

Oliver rolled his eyes. "And you're an idiot. Now if you'll excuse me, my wife and I are on our way to lunch with our daughter," he informed him, moving past him and sliding an arm around Chloe's waist.

Chloe paused at Oliver's choice of word but didn't say anything, she kept her eyes on Clark instead, "I’d rather be a murderer than a coward if it means keeping people safe," she said sharply, "and if you know what is good for you, you will leave us alone." She told him.

Clark glared at the two of them and shook his head, a disgusted look in his face as he pulled the door open, squishing the solid steel knob in his hand before walking out of the room.

"And don't come back," he muttered under his breath, watching Clark stalk out the door.

With a deep breath, Chloe leaned sideways against Oliver a little and nodded, "at least that is out of the way."

Oliver turned his head and pressed a kiss to her temple. "You okay?" His voice was quiet.

"Yeah," She nodded, closing her eyes for a second then looking up at him, "you?"

He nodded, as well. "I'm fine," he said honestly. "I don't care what he thinks."

Chloe considered that for a moment then nodded a little, looking up at him, "oddly enough, I... really don't either," she admitted, frowning slightly then starting to smile, apparently she was finally done with Clark, and she didn't feel bad at all.

He watched her for a moment, then smiled back softly. "You are one hell of a woman," he whispered. "You know that, right?"

She smiled a little, shrugging and kissing him softly then pausing and pulling back, "did you... tell Clark you were going to lunch with 'your wife'?" Chloe asked, cocking her head a little.

Oliver's eyes widened a little in feigned innocence. "Did I?"

She arched an eyebrow and looked up at him, "Em heard it too."

He flashed her a bright, charming grin. "Well...it felt right."

She smiled a little at the look on his face, like she could _not_ smile at that, "uh huh, let's go." She said, pulling away and taking his hand in hers, "I'm starving."

Inwardly he did a victory dance. He'd thrown one of the biggest, scariest words at her and she hadn't even flinched.

Now _that_ was progress.


	9. Chapter 9

"Good work, Impulse," Chloe spoke against the communicator as she watched him zip through the streets of Central City, where he'd been spending most of his time at.

"Thanks, Watchtower, I'm ready for some hot dogs, want me to bring you some?" He offered, grinning.

"I've already got dinner plans, but thank you," she grinned a little, shaking her head.

"Alright, tell my future girlfriend goodnight for me."

"I'll tell your _niece_ goodnight for you," Chloe corrected him, smirking.

"Man, way to make me feel old, now I need beer too. Impulse out!" He called before disconnecting his communicator for the evening.

Chloe chuckled quietly and switched channels as well as maps on the main screen, "okay Arrow, you're the last one out," she told Ollie, leaning back against her seat, "planning on joining us anytime soon?" She asked, looking from the map to Emily's sleeping form over the couch, she'd been playing with her earlier when she just... passed out and Chloe didn't want to disturb her sleep, so she just surrounded her with a couple of pillows and made sure she was warm enough for the time being.

Not that Chloe blamed her for her exhaustion, it had been a long day for her, with the whole learning how to crawl and all, Chloe couldn't believe she was almost six months old already, it felt like only yesterday they had found her outside that same door, she felt like time was flying and soon Em would be talking and walking all on her own.

"Oh, I don't know. You think I should?" His voice was teasing and sounded so even through the distorter he was still wearing. "Do you miss me, Watchtower?" He grinned a little.

She smiled at his words and turned back to look at the computer, making sure all other lines were closed and no one was listening in on their conversation one more time, "why would I miss you, Arrow? We have nothing but a strictly professional relationship."

"Is that what we have?" He raised an eyebrow, sliding the balcony door open and stepping inside, smirking. "Could have fooled me, Tower."

Chloe turned her chair around and smiled up at him, pulling the communicator from her ear, "what would you call it, Arrow?"

"Hm." He didn't bother pushing the hood off or removing his glasses, just bent down and kissed her on the mouth. "Marriage?" He smirked.

She kissed him back then pulled her head away at the word, "is that what is it? I thought it was more... fooling around."

"Ouch. And she hits the bullseye with the snark. Well played." He smirked.

She grinned slowly and grabbed both sides of his hood, pulling him down again and kissing him deeply.

He smiled against her mouth, returning the kiss without hesitation, his hands sliding down her back. "That's better."

Chloe licked her lips and nodded, "getting there."

Oliver's hands snuck beneath the bottom of her shirt, skimming up her bare skin beneath. "Better?" he murmured.

She shivered a little at the touch and nodded, "a little, you're on the right track, Arrow."

"Hm. Just a little?" He dropped his mouth to kiss her neck.

Her eyes closed and she slid her hands down from his hood, to his shoulders and bare arms, "yeah, a little." She told him, taking a deep breath.

"Guess I should step it up then," he murmured, his tongue darting out to taste her skin.

Chloe turned her face and pushed his hood aside a little, nuzzling his ear before lifting her lips to his ear, "well, we _are_ a team and I suppose this is a good situation to build up teamwork."

"Agreed." He tugged her toward the edge of the chair. "She sleeping?" he asked.

She took a deep breath and nodded, cocking her head to look at the baby, "yeah, passed out by the looks of it."

Oliver glanced over too, then flashed Chloe a smirk. "Perfect." He scooped her up into his arms and set her down on the desk.

With her arms wrapped around his shoulders, she smirked up at him and adjusted on the desk before reaching for his glasses and pulling them off, "there, that's better."

He grinned, dipping his head and kissing her possessively, tangling one gloved hand in her hair.

She placed the glasses on the desk even as she returned the kiss then wrapped her arms around him again, pulling him closer.

"I love you," he murmured, reaching down and sliding his hand up her spine.

"I love you too," she whispered to him, rubbing her hands over his back then back to his arms, hooking her finger on one of his armbands.

Oliver glanced down and smiled, then looked up at her, meeting her eyes. "Marry me."

She paused at that, blinking a couple of times as she looked at him in silence for a moment, "you're serious."

"Very," he said quietly, watching her. In the past few months he'd dropped so many hints that he had the feeling she thought he was joking. He was tired of hinting around.

Chloe took a deep breath, blinking a couple of times as she willed herself to not freak out. She had taken all his hints as jokes mostly because thinking of getting married again made her nervous even though she knew that, at this point, it was just a formality. They were raising their child together, they worked incredibly well as a team both as Green Arrow and Watchtower and as parents.

"I--" she started then took another deep breath and stopped when, out of nowhere, a wave of nausea hit her. Her eyes widened even more and without thinking about it, she pushed him away and jumped down from the desk, rushing into the bathroom and closing the door behind her.

Oliver's eyes widened as he watched her flee. "Chloe?" There was worry in his voice as he quickly followed her, but didn't open the door.

She didn't answer and didn't come out for a long time, when she did finally open the door, her face was pale, her eyes a little red, not from crying, but from being sick then washing her face a few hundred times with shaky hands, "I'm so sorry," she whispered to him as she looked up at him, finally stepping out of the bathroom.

"Are you all right?" His brow was furrowed worriedly and he lifted a hand to her cheek.

"Yeah," she breathed, leaning into his touch a little and closing her eyes, "just felt nauseous all of the sudden..." 

He frowned, leaning in and pressing his lips to her forehead. "You don't feel warm. Do you think you have a fever?"

"I don't think so," she said quietly, "I was fine, I was starving until like, ten minutes ago," she told him, licking her lips and making a face at the taste of mouthwash, she had used about half a bottle of it.

"Maybe we should get you home just in case," he suggested, still worried. "You've been working a lot lately and not just at work."

Chloe nodded a little and slid one of her hands in his, "soon, after we talk," she said, looking up at him.

He squeezed her hand gently, keeping his eyes on her. "I love you. I have for a long time, Chloe," he said softly.

Squeezing his hand back, she nodded slightly and looked down at it for a moment before looking up at him again, "I love you too, Ollie," she said sincerely, "and I do want nothing more than for us to spend the rest of our lives together and continue to be a family," she said sincerely, holding his gaze.

Oliver smiled at that and leaned his forehead against hers. "I have a ring for you," he admitted. "It's at home."

She held her breath at that and cupped his cheek in her free hand, nodding and smiling softly, "of course you do."

He kissed her cheek softly. "So what do you say?"

"I say yes," she whispered, "as long as you promise me being married won't change what we have now, unless it's for the better."

"You have my word," he told her quietly.

Chloe took a deep breath and nodded a little, smiling slowly up at him, "then it's a yes," she told him quietly. She shouldn't let her fears and insecurities get in the way of something that was clearly important to him.

He smiled back at her, dipping his head and kissing her softly on the mouth.

She kissed him back just as softly and squeezed his hand tightly in hers, her heart beating quickly against her chest.

"We'll be okay," he whispered, cupping her cheek in his hand.

"I know," she whispered to him, looking up at him, "I just have this stupid fear that, somehow, things will go wrong with the wedding or... we will just fall apart after," she admitted, looking down as her eyes teared up a little. She knew it wasn't going to be like the last time, even when she agreed to marrying Jimmy, she knew things weren't right, and now she knew that although she loved him, she didn't love him nearly as much as she loved Oliver.

He brushed his nose against hers. "It's understandable," he murmured. "But I won't leave you, or Emily. Not ever. I'll keep us together and safe no matter what it takes."

"We will," she corrected him quietly, her voice wavering, "we will keep her and each other safe."

"We," he echoed, nodding and kissing her softly once more. "Always. We're a team."

Chloe took a deep breath and kissed him one more time before smiling a little more, "all the times you were joking about it, you were trying to figure out what I would say, weren't you?"

He smiled, ducking his head a little. "Pretty much," he confessed.

She smiled a little and kissed his cheek, "I'm sorry it wasn't exactly ideal..."

"We don't exactly do things conventionally," he told her, resting his head against hers. "And I'm okay with that."

"Conventional is boring," she told him, smiling softly.

"And we're anything but boring." He flashed her a bright smile.

"You mean with raising a baby who is ours but came from the future and the whole double identity thing?" She teased him, relaxing a little.

"Well, I just meant because we're really beautiful and rich." He smirked. "But there's that too."

Chloe paused at that and cocked her head, "well, you are," she told him, "and Em, by extension."

Oliver raised an eyebrow at her. " _We_ ," he corrected her.

"We're not married _yet_ ," she reminded him, her heart skipping a beat at her own words, "I'm hardly rich."

He gave her a look. "Chloe, up until Em...you've been the sole benefactor in my will for quite awhile."

She paused at that, her eyes widening, " _what_?"

Oliver watched her, then shrugged a little.

"Why would you do that? Before, I mean?" She shook her head, "we didn't do much more than work together, Ollie."

"Because I trust you, Chloe." His voice was soft. "More than anyone else," he told her.

Her expression softened at that and she looked down for a moment then back at him, "how long?"

He was silent for a moment. "About a year and a half."

She took a deep breath, thinking about it for a moment, "even after everything that happened with Davis, you still kept me on it?" She whispered, a little surprised. They hadn't exactly seen eye to eye for a while, and she knew she'd been the wrong one in that situation.

Oliver nodded slightly. "We didn't see eye to eye on it, Chloe, but...I got where you're coming from."

Her eyes teared up for the third time since she'd left the bathroom and she nodded a little, "I'm sorry."

He frowned a little, brushing his thumb over her cheek. "Water under a bridge so far in the past, Chloe. It's okay."

"That, yeah, but," she took a deep breath and looked at him again, "I'm sorry it took me so long to trust you like you trust me."

His chest tightened a little at her words. "I gave you a lot less reason to trust me."

"You didn't," she promised him quietly, "from the first time I showed up in the clocktower, telling you I had figured out your identity, you never questioned me, you made me a part of the team without even blinking and you had no reason to trust me at all."

Oliver smiled softly at the memory. "Who knew when you barged in like you owned the place one day you really would?" he teased.

She smiled a little more at that, her vision getting blurrier with tears, she let go of his hand and wrapped her arms around his neck as she stood on the very tip of her toes and hugged him close, hiding her face against his neck, "let's go home."

* * *

Oliver rubbed a hand over his face, smiling faintly as he made his way back out into the living room. "Went right to sleep without a fight," he reported to Chloe.

Chloe raised an eyebrow and jumped a little when she turned around to face him, "that was really fast," she told him, her eyes a little wide.

"You must have worn her out today," he teased her.

She took a deep breath, closing the calendar she'd been looking at on the computer and pursed her lips together, "we did have a pretty exciting day."

"Yeah?" He leaned against the couch, watching her. "What'd you two do?"

"Well," Chloe stepped away from the computer, "went to have lunch with Lois, then we went to the park for a while, then--" she paused, "shopping, then we came back and she played in the playpen for a long time while I set up some stuff in the system."

"Sounds like a nice day," he told her with a soft smile.

"It was," she said quietly, walking over to him, "but there is something I want to talk to you about."

"All right." He reached out and wound his arms around her waist. "What's up?"

She wrapped her arms around his neck and stepped closer, half leaning into him, "we're either going to have to move the wedding up, or postpone it."

His eyebrows furrowed. "What? Why?"

She took a deep breath at that, holding his gaze and pursing her lips for a moment, "because I don't want to walk down the aisle when I'm eight months pregnant."

Oliver stared at her for a moment, his eyes wide. "You're...we're..."

Holding her breath, she nodded slowly, searching his eyes. "We are..."

"Wow," he whispered.

"I didn't really think about it until today and Lois was telling me that this was around the same time she got to the future, when she got there and I kept getting sick so I thought..." she blew out a breath.

"And you've been sick," he murmured, staring at her for a moment.

She nodded slightly, "not really sick."

A smile tugged at his mouth. "No, I guess not." He reached out and cupped her cheek in one hand.

Chloe slid her fingers into his hair and smiled slightly when she saw his smile, "I didn't talk to Emil yet, but I took a few tests, I wanted you to be with me when I spoke with him."

Oliver pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth. "Wow," he murmured. "Two."

"I know," she whispered, closing her eyes and shifting closer to him, "apparently no matter how careful we were, this is something we couldn't change."

"That's...actually kind of reassuring."

"It is?" Chloe frowned slightly, still watching him closely.

"Destiny?" He watched her. "Yeah."

"Oh," she smiled a little and nodded, "well, we did change destiny once, though. How does that work?"

"We changed the bad part. Not the good part." He smiled softly.

Nodding a little, she smiled, leaning in and brushing her nose against his, "so you're okay with this?" Not that she thought he wasn't going to be, but she had to make sure.

"Yeah, of course," he whispered, kissing her tenderly on the mouth.

Chloe relaxed a little and pulled her arms from around his neck, wrapping them around his back instead and pulling him close as she returned the kiss gently.

"I love you," he whispered.

"I love you too," she whispered back to him, holding him close.

Oliver slid his arms around her and rested their foreheads together. Then his eyes widened. "We need to start shopping. We'll need two of everything."

She winced a little and nodded, still holding on to him tightly, "we're going to have two children under the age of two."

"Good thing we have our fair share of reliable babysitters." He grinned.

Chloe nodded a little and shifted closer to him, just needing the reassurance of having him close and that she wasn't going to do any of that on her own because _that_ was a terrifying thought, "yeah, we have those."

"And we have each other," Oliver murmured, kissing her temple.

Her chest tightened a little and she nodded, closing her eyes, "yeah, I could never do this without you."'

"You don't have to," he promised softly. "We're a family."

"We are," she whispered, pulling her head back and looking up at him again, "a kind of big one all of the sudden." She said quietly, her expression a mix between excited and terrified.

Oliver smiled at that. "Yeah, I guess so." His eyes were bright.

Chloe's heart skipped a beat and she held her breath, her eyes tearing up all of the sudden, "wow..."

He smiled and held her gaze. "Yeah."

"No," she said, smiling more and swallowing hard as tears ran down her cheek, "I've never seen this look on your face before," she whispered, "so... hopeful, so... _happy_."

He held her gaze. "You make me happy," he whispered back.

"Being part of a family makes you even happier..." she said softly, smiling as she cupped his face in her hand.

"Yes," he murmured, nodding and turning his head to kiss her palm.

Chloe sighed deeply and leaned forward, kissing him again, "I love you so much," she whispered against his lips.

"Ditto," he whispered back. "Come on." He started walking backwards down the hall.

"Where are you taking me?" She asked, smirking a little.

"To bed," He told her with a grin.

Chloe walked with him, cocking her head slightly, "what do you want to take me to bed for? You already knocked me up, twice."

"Well, technically I've only had the pleasure of knocking you up _once_ ," he said with a smirk.

"Well, technically doesn't apply to our lives, besides, we've done this enough times before to make it count." She smirked back.

"Yes, but...well, now we won't need to use protection," he pointed out with a grin.

Chloe paused at that, her eyes widening and darkening at the same time, "I _like_ the way you think."

Oliver laughed softly, tugging her closer to him. "I thought so, Mrs. Queen."

"Soon to be, anyway," she told him, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her body closer to his, "but we will talk about the wedding later, much later," she smirked, "like tomorrow. Maybe."

"If I let you out of bed," he teased with a smirk, kissing her jaw.

"Well, we will have to get out of bed when child number one wakes up, but it doesn't mean we can't keep going back to it," she grinned, shivering.

"I think you can pretty much count on it."

"Glad we have a plan for what it counts," she grinned brightly then turned her head and kissed him hungrily as she tightened her arms around his neck, pulling him as close as possible, and although she was completely aware that there was still a lot to talk about and the fact that she was pregnant was terrifying, it didn't feel as scary as she thought it would initially, because it didn't feel like her first pregnancy, they were already raising a baby, they could take care of a second one.

And they could take care of each other.

Because that's what families do.


End file.
